“This is being blown so way out of proportion,” the Wisconsin Republican said.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Ron Johnson said Sunday that concerns over the end of in-person election security briefings to House and Senate intel committees were an overreaction. “This is being blown so way out of proportion. I can probably count on one or two fingers the things that are actually classified in those briefings,” Johnson said in a contentious interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.“ “There is no surprise here.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence told House and Senate intelligence committees in a later dated Aug.28 that it will still provide written briefings on election security issues. In-person briefings, however, would no longer be provided due to leaks from Congress, according to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. When asked by Bash whether he believed Russia was actively working to destabilize the 2020 election, Johnson said he did. But the Wisconsin Republican also said that Democrats’ claims that the Trump campaign colluded with the country were “doing Putin’s work for him” and took a dig at the California Democrat who is the House intelligence chair.
