LINCOLN PARK — U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) on Wednesday addressed newly announced congressional probes into Russian computer hacking ahead of the November election, drawing parallels with the Watergate hearings and telling constituents it's "probably as important as anything I've done in my life."
Quigley himself raised the issue in brief remarks to the Lincoln Central Association at its annual meeting Wednesday evening. He cited his role on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, which announced Wednesday that it would join its U.S. Senate counterparts in investigating Russian hacking into the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in an attempt to influence the November election.
Quigley called upcoming hearings into the matter "challenging, interesting and absolutely critical," and drew parallels with the Watergate hearings that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Quigley called it "probably as important as anything I've done in my life."
U.S. intelligence agencies have uniformly agreed that Russians hacked into the campaigns of Clinton and Trump in an attempt to influence the election.
Quigley said he believed newly confirmed CIA Director Mike Pompeo was capable and willing to investigate the issue independently. Saying he had worked with Pompeo when he was a Republican Kansas congressman on the Intelligence Committee, Quigley added, "Mr. Pompeo is a very conservative guy" who had already differed with Trump on the threat posed by Russian hacking.
Quigley suggested Trump, who has denied the hacking had an impact on voters, was something of a loose cannon, saying, "I genuinely don't know what the president will say tomorrow."
Quigley said he expected the congressional probes to be fair and bipartisan.
"I understand the country is polarized," he said. "We've always been polarized. The challenge to me is making it work."
Quigley sought to calm constituents in the end by quoting the departing words of President Barack Obama, saying, "Folks, it's going to be OK."
