South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Republicans who are “gleeful” about Russia’s cyber attacks against Democrats are unpatriotic “political hack[s].”
“To my Republican friends who are gleeful, you are making a huge mistake,” Graham said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which he was joined by Arizona Sen. John McCain.
On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report asserting that U.S. intelligence officials have determined with a high degree of confidence that Russian president Vladimir Putin instructed his spy agencies to hack Democrats’ email systems in order to meddle in the presidential campaign.
The report, which is light on evidence and is a watered-down version of a classified report given to Congress, also asserts that Russia’s intelligence agencies used cut-outs to place the hacked emails in the hands of WikiLeaks, which published them during the campaign.
Graham said that while most Republicans have been condemning Russia’s actions, some Republicans who have previously criticized the Kremlin and WikiLeaks are now celebrating the hacking campaign.
“And to those who are gleeful about it, you’re a political hack. You’re not a Republican. You’re not a patriot,” Graham said without naming Republicans he believes are happy with Russian meddling.
“When one party is compromised all of us are compromised.”
Graham, who has been heavily critical of Russia, said he and McCain plan to introduce a bipartisan bill placing sanctions on Russia’s finance and energy sectors that go beyond those that President Obama announced last month.
Obama sanctioned several high-level Russian intelligence officials and ordered 35 U.S.-based Russian intelligence agents to leave the country.
“We’re going to give President Trump an opportunity to make Russia pay a price for interfering in our elections,” said Graham.
As for Trump, he has not given a clear indication of how or if he will respond to Russia in light of the intelligence reports. He was given a classified briefing on the report on Friday, just before the declassified version was released to the public.
Trump released a statement just after that briefing acknowledging that Russia and other nations regularly attempt to hack American political institutions and businesses. He also acknowledged that Russia was behind the cyber attacks against the Democratic National Committee. But on Saturday, he said on Twitter that he hopes to “work together” with Russia and that only “fools” would view good relations with Russia as a negative. (RELATED: Trump Says He Wants To ‘Work Together’ With Russia)
During a “Meet the Press” interview of her own on Sunday, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway dodged host Chuck Todd’s question about whether Trump will punish Russia for the cyber attacks. She argued, as has Trump, that the hacks did not influence the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor.
WATCH: