Biden says that when McConnell refused to join bipartisan statement condemning Russian interference [View all]

[MelissaB]

2. Biden says that when McConnell refused to join bipartisan statement condemning Russian interference ahead of the election, they decided Obama couldn't speak out -- "the die had been cast ... this was all about the political play"

Link to tweet

1. Biden says when the intel reports about Russian interference were coming in during summer of 2016, they worried about going public: “The president and I would sit there literally after the PDB, after everyone had left the room, and say, ‘What the hell are we going to do?’”

2. Biden says that when McConnell refused to join bipartisan statement condemning Russian interference ahead of the election, they decided Obama couldn't speak out -- "the die had been cast ... this was all about the political play"

3. "Can you imagine if the president called a press conference,"on Russian hacking during campaign, "What do you think would have happened?Would things have gotten better, or would it further look like we were trying to delegitimize the electoral process, because of our opponent?"

4. Biden says re Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, more intel came in right after election day: "Had we known what we knew three weeks later, we may have done something more."

Speaking at @CFR_org, @JoeBiden says current conflict with Russia isn't a second cold war - "this is just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself"

Link to tweet