While Republican Congressman Mike Coffman of Aurora sees Russia as a big threat to national security, he doesn’t think the Russians altered the outcome of the presidential election.
That’s what he told callers in an hour-long telephone town hall Wednesday evening.
“Do I think that Russia’s involvement changed the outcome of the election? No, I don’t,” he said. “I think what they achieved, though, was to, I think, delegitimize our political system, which is their objective. And so I think they’re doing pretty good at that.”
Asked to rank North Korea, Russia and China in order of their threat to the nation, Coffman put them in that order with Russia clocking in at No. 2.
“I just think that they have such hybrid ways, they’ve developed such sophistication in undermining countries within their sphere of influence,” he said. “I think the last administration just didn’t stand up to them, I think, when we should have.”
But when it comes to formal investigations into potential ties to Russia and the administration or campaign of President Donald Trump, Coffman said he doesn’t trust members of a hyper-partisan Congress to conduct a capable probe.
He would rather the FBI do that.
“When we’re dealing with methods and sources in terms of intelligence, I just think that they are the best equipped to do it,” he said. “They’re certainly the least partisan to do it, they’re the most objective to do it whatever their flaws are. I’ve just got more confidence in them than I do in the Congress right now. So that’s where the investigation ought to be.”
The FBI, Coffman said, should finish its investigative work.
“They’re doing a criminal investigation, and then let’s see where it lands,” he said.
From between 6 p.m. and 7, Mountain Time, the fifth-term Republican took questions from callers, ranging from healthcare and immigration to transportation and veterans’ issues.
He said he is working on bipartisan legislation, called the Bridge Act, to extend DACA for three years and put it into permanent law. He said he does not support a single-payer healthcare system. He wants to see more transparency in the pharmaceutical industry.
He voted againstt a recent bill Trump is expected to sign allowing internet providers to sell private web data of online users.
“I don’t see how it can be justified,” he said.
Asked by one caller what could be done federally to alleviate state transportation issues like the Castle Rock area bottleneck on I-25, Coffman said he would like to scrap a federal prohibition that only allows states to toll for new construction. Colorado should have the option to put in toll roads and do revenue bonds, he told callers.
Asked when his constituents will be able to see him face-to-face in an actual town hall, he said he’s holding one on April 12 at 6 p.m. at the Anschutz campus. The details will go up on his website soon, he said.
“You’ll need to register for it,” Coffman said, adding that he wants to make sure his district residents have priority. “I think we’re going to have a lot of people who are interested.”
when a politician answers a question like that, assume they are lying…He KNOWS the russians tanked the election…He is PART of the problem….Coffman is a Russian supporter if he continues to deny the facts that are already known….
CJ Umberseen: You need new sources, the ones you have are LYING to you. Hillary didn’t have much of ANYTHING to say about the uranium sales, those leases are held by a foreign company working in this country, and there were 4 different agencies that signed off on that sale, not JUST the state department. The ONLY way Hillary could have stopped the sales is if she had convinced Obama to stop it himself. You righties REALLY need to learn what you’re talking about BEFORE you parrot right wing lies.
And just for the record, Fox News is NOT a reliable source of news. In every study done, Fox news viewers are not only less informed than other news viewers (including those who get their news primarily from the Daily Show), but they are consistently MISINFORMED about things. Get that? They are LYING to you! That’s why so many of the rest of us look at you like you’re crazy when you spout the nonsense you so frequently do. Like THIS. There is a reason lots of us in the REAL world call it FAUX NOISE.
Here is a hint: If someone tells you that someone on the left did something that you can’t possibly believe, it’s because it’s a lie. Why would Hillary sell off 20% of our uranium? Because she DIDN’T! And you know what? She didn’t run a child prostitution ring out of a pizza place in DC, either. Maybe you should use a LITTLE bit of ADULT JUDGMENT when you hear such OBVIOUS BULLSHIT. Try doing a LITTLE bit of research and find out the TRUTH of what’s being said. THEN spout it out, but NOT before you have a clue.
One last thing: When it comes right down to it, the right are masters of projection. If they are telling you that someone ELSE did something, look at THEM first, they are up to their butts in it. That’s almost a guarantee. I’ve been watching it for the last 45 years or so, and it’s pathetic that you would believe such liars. Open your eyes, and use your BRAIN. Would YOU do the things that you’ve heard Hillary accused of? Neither would SHE.
Will Morrison: What are your sources of what YOU call the truth? You write as you somehow are in a position of being in the know. Most of the major media outlets are blatant in their left wing agenda. I have been laughing for the last week that they completely refuse to cover the Evelyn Farkas (former Obama administration Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and Ukraine)story, who was so stupid to spill her guts on MSNBC about promoting leaking information. It goes to show someone having a Doctorate does not mean they are smart.