Marco Rubio warns GOP: We could be the next target for hackers
Batches of emails hacked from Democrats' accounts have been released by Wikileaks on a near-daily basis for several weeks, but at least one Republican says it's unwise to use those documents for political gain.
Former presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubiotold ABC News that his fellow Republicans were making a mistake by publicizing embarrassing information gleaned from the emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"I will not discuss any issue that has become public solely on the basis of WikiLeaks," Rubio said in an interview published Wednesday.
Rubio, noting that U.S. intelligence has formally blamed Russia for engineering the hacks and accused the Kremlin of attempting to sway the outcome of the election, offered the GOP a warning.
"As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process, and I will not indulge it," Rubio said. "Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the press operation at the Republican National Committee have tried to capitalize on the contents of the hacked emails, stolen from the account belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, and turn them into a campaign issue for Clinton.
The messages hammered home by Trump underscore voters concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness and opportunism, her ties to Wall Street bankers and her positions on trade and the environment.
Others have been more embarrassing than damaging, showing the gossip and backstabbing between people in Clinton's orbit, sometimes directed at the candidate herself, along with conversations with reporters jockeying for access to insiders.
The Clinton campaign has not confirmed or denied the documents are real, but has frequently warned that some may have been altered by the hackers.
