Carper Statement on Republicans’ Efforts to Promote Russian Disinformation and Failed Attempt to Smear Vice President Biden

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), a senior member and former Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), released the following statement regarding Chairman Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) continued efforts to promote Russian disinformation and use official Senate time and resources to advance partisan objectives. 

“Right now, the United States Senate should be engaged in an all hands on deck effort to address the unprecedented crises affecting millions of the Americans we all represent – from a deadly pandemic that has claimed over 200,000 innocent lives and the fallout from the highest jobless rates we’ve seen since the Great Depression to life-threatening storms and wildfires impacting thousands of communities across our country. But, instead, Senate Republicans, led by Chairman Johnson, have spent months of our time – and taxpayer dollars – pursuing political investigations that are squarely based on conspiracy theories and Russian disinformation all in attempt to smear President Trump’s political opponent. It is absolutely shameful that this Committee in particular, with our history of working together in a bipartisan way to tackle major challenges, has been so blatantly used as a political tool. After months of searching for a problem, the report released today has managed to compromise our national security all on its own while finding absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden. It is long past time for this sad chapter in our Committee’s history to come to close and for us to get back to the real work we should be doing to actually serve our constituents.”