Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said Sunday that her staff is being targeted by phishing emails as concerns grow that Russia will again meddle in a U.S. election.
“I do know that we’ve had an experience in our office with people getting phishing emails with social media accounts,” Shaheen (D-NH) said on “Face the Nation.” “There has been one situation that we have turned over to authorities to look into.”
Shaheen’s admission comes after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) confirmed that Russian hackers had unsuccessfully tried to access her Senate computer system.
“Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable,” McCaskill said in a statement given to the Daily Beast. “While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully,” she said, referring to the Russian president.
McCaskill is considered the most endangered of the 10 Democratic senators running for re-election this year.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Missouri by nearly 19 percentage points in 2016.
Earlier this month, Microsoft’s Vice President of Customer Security and Trust Tom Burt told an audience in Aspen, Colo., that three congressional candidates had been targeted, but didn’t give their names.
He simply described them as “interesting targets from an espionage standpoint,” according to Vox.
CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked Shaheen if she knew who, besides McCaskill, was on the list.
“I don’t know who else is on the list,” she said, before explaining that her office was also targeted.
“And we’re hearing that this is widespread at – with political parties across the country, as well as with members of the Senate,” she continued. “So this is a very big issue and it’s something that we need to address in a bipartisan way. It affects both Republicans and Democrats. It’s about the security of our political process and our government functions and we need to work together to address it.”
Last week President Trump, who has dismissed assertions that Moscow meddled in 2016, tweeted that he was concerned about Russians tampering in the midterm elections – suggesting they would do so on behalf of the Democrats.
“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats,” Trump wrote Tuesday. “They definitely don’t want Trump!”