{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://hurd.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/gops-hurd-targets-russian-hack-democrats", "GOP's Hurd Targets Russian Hack of Democrats", "2016-12-12", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "TX", "Will Hurd", "H001073", "hurd.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Rep. Will Hurd has more reason than most to resent the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The group just spent a boatload of money in an unsuccessful attempt to end his congressional career.\nHowever, the San Antonio Republican said, it should alarm everybody that the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Russian operatives hacked into DCCC computers this summer with an eye toward helping Donald Trump get elected.\n\u201cThe DCCC spent $6 million against me,\u201d Hurd said late Monday afternoon. \u201cBut an attack on them is an attack on all of us.\u201d\nHurd is particularly well qualified to speak about the firestorm over Russian involvement in the American presidential election. Before coming to Congress, he worked as an undercover agent in the CIA and he has a background in cybersecurity.\nOn Monday, he said that he hadn\u2019t read the latest CIA assessment of the motives behind alleged Russian meddling in the election. But he said that it\u2019s essential to conduct a thorough, evenhanded investigation.\n\u201cWe cannot politicize this,\u201d said Hurd, whose district stretches to El Paso County's Lower Valley.\nRepublican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate on Monday said that chamber\u2019s Intelligence Committee would conduct an investigation. There also were calls for a joint House-Senate committee to perform its own probe and release its findings to the public.\nIt\u2019s unclear whether Hurd would play a role. He\u2019s chairman of Information and Technology Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.\nAs the furor grows over possible Russian involvement in the election, Hurd said it\u2019s important to keep a couple of points in mind. First of all, he said, people need to keep an open mind.\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know about it at this point,\u201d he said, explaining that he wants to know a lot more about why the CIA believes the Russians wanted to help Trump win.\nIt\u2019s also important to understand what the CIA didn\u2019t accuse the Russians of, Hurd said. U.S. intelligence has not said that Russia changed actual vote counts, he said.\n\u201cThis was an information operation by the Russian government,\u201d he said, explaining that it appears to have consisted of leaking hacked information that was embarrassing to Hillary Clinton. \u201cWe have to be clear because some people are conflating a lot of issues.\u201d\nHurd has had conflicts with the Republican nominee in the past.\nThroughout the campaign, Hurd declined to endorse Trump. When video footage was released in which Trump bragged of being able grab strange women in the most intimate places, Hurd called on him to drop out of the race.\nBut on Monday, Hurd declined to criticize Trump, who has dismissed the CIA analysis as \u201cridiculous.\u201d\nHurd said he believed Trump supported congressional investigations of claims that Russia meddled in the election.\nIn a tweet, Trump also dismissed the CIA, saying the agency incorrectly concluded that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war there. Asked about the tweet, Hurd didn\u2019t criticize Trump, instead praising his former colleagues at the CIA.\n\u201cI think the CIA is filled with smart, thoughtful people who are working hard,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cThey\u2019re still working as if it\u2019s Sept. 12, 2001. Intelligence is an imperfect game and they\u2019re working hard to collect information to inform policymakers.\u201d\nRegardless of the outcome of any investigations into possible Russian hacks, there is an important message to Congress, Hurd said.\n\u201cWe have to make sure our country has the right digital defenses,\u201d he said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://hurd.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/gops-hurd-targets-russian-hack-democrats"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8913790807127953, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}