Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that she agrees "full stop" with the U.S. intelligence community, saying there isn’t "any doubt" that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, The Hill reports.
"I don’t think there is any doubt that they did it, and I think we should all be prepared – given that capability and will – that they’ll do it again," she said at the Aspen Security Forum.
She then said that she has not seen evidence to suggest that Russia targeted state electoral systems "to favor a particular political party," though she later admitted that the hackers' efforts were to “attack certain political parties … more than others."
When pressed on whether she agrees with the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion, which includes the fact that Russia tried to assist then-candidate Donald Trump and hurt his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
"We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump," reads the unclassified assessment released in January 2017. "We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him."
"I agree with the intel community's assessment full stop – any attack on democracy, which is what that was, whether it is successful or it is unsuccessful, is unacceptable," Nielsen said. "I absolutely believe their assessment."
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