Marco Rubio received some unsettling news during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s continuing hearings on Trump-Russian ties. The entire Russia matter has turned into a co-mingled mess of competing interests — like with House Intel Committee leader Devin Nunes (who was on Trump’s transition team) leading an “Inspector Clouseau investigation” — but things are growing personal for Rubio, too. The Florida senator sits on the Senate Intel Committee, and on Thursday, an expert witness spoke directly to him about Russian attempts to influence the election. Clinton Watts (of the Foreign Policy Research Institute) told Rubio that Russia actively worked to harm his election prospects:

“Russia’s overt media outlets sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spectrum with adversarial views of the Kremlin … they were in full swing during the Republican and Democratic primaries and may have sinked the hopes of candidates who were hostile to Russian interests long before the field narrowed. Senator Rubio, in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered through these efforts.”

Axio reporter Shannon Vavra tweeted that Rubio “looked taken aback, whispered to aide” upon hearing the news. However, the above C-SPAN camera angle only shows Rubio whispering to his aide while looking kinda “over it.” Perhaps Vavra was able to better gauge Rubio’s true feelings, for he has every reason to feel slighted.

Rubio, of course, conceded the primary GOP in mid-March with a final kick by Trump on the way out. Watts’ words shouldn’t be surprising, although they are in a way, since the general assumption is that Russia primarily supported Trump because of Vladimir Putin’s long-standing grudge against Hillary Clinton. Of course, Trump was also effusive in his praise of Putin, who viewed him as capable of toppling Clinton.

Yet Rubio is certainly critical of the Kremlin, so he’d be an ideal target of Russia. In addition to his Senate Intel Committee stint on Thursday, Rubio also delivered remarks to the non-partisan Atlantic Council think tank. In doing so, he condemned Putin as a “tyrant,” via the Tampa Bay Times:

“It’s not Putin’s Russia, it’s Russians’ Russia. Vladimir Putin happens to have control of the government there today but Russia is not Vladimir Putin. Russia is an ancient, proud culture and tradition embedded in its people. Vladimir Putin is a tyrant that just happens to control its government.”

Last weekend saw mass protester arrests in Russia — in the largest demonstration against Putin since 2012 — in nearly one hundred anticorruption rallies that spread across the country.</s>Washington (CNN) Russian interference with American politics did not stop after the election, and prominent Republicans -- including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Marco Rubio -- have been targeted by coordinated social media attacks, cybersecurity experts told a Senate panel Thursday.

Rubio -- a former primary opponent of President Donald Trump -- announced at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Russian meddling that during last year's election his former campaign staff was targeted by hackers twice.

Rubio said the attacks came from computers using IP addresses located in Russia -- once in July of last year, after he announced he would run again for the Senate and again, Wednesday morning. IP addresses do not necessarily confirm who conducted hacking, as it is relatively easy for hackers to mask their location.

"Former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia," Rubio said Thursday. "That effort was unsuccessful. I would also inform the committee within the last 24 hours, at 10:45 a.m. yesterday, a second attempt was made, again, against former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to our internal information -- again targeted from an IP address from an unknown location in Russia. And that effort was also unsuccessful."

Rubio's comment followed after one cybersecurity expert said Rubio himself had been the target of a Russian propaganda campaign designed to help Trump -- although the witness, former FBI agent and cybersecurity expert Clinton Watts, later said that all Republican opponents of Trump were targeted by Russians, not just Rubio.

"This past week we observed social media campaigns targeting speaker of the House Paul Ryan hoping to foment further unrest amongst US democratic institutions," Watts told senators.

The committee held its first public hearing on Russian meddling in the US election Thursday with calls for nonpartisanship, citing ongoing foreign interference that threatens "the heart of our democracy."

"The vice chairman and I realize that if we politicize this process, our efforts will likely fail," Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said in his opening remarks. "The public deserves to hear the truth about possible Russian involvement in our elections, how they came to be involved, how we may have failed to prevent that involvement, what actions were taken in response, if any, and what we plan to do to ensure the integrity of future free elections at the heart of our democracy."

JUST WATCHED Burr: The public deserves the truth Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Burr: The public deserves the truth 00:30

There was little chance that Thursday's hearing would be as explosive as the House intelligence committee's first public hearing last week, which started off with FBI Director James Comey confirming the FBI is investigating possible coordination between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials and included Trump himself fighting back during the hearing on Twitter.

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, said on CNN's Erin Burnett "OutFront" Thursday evening that the work of the panel was multifaceted and could take awhile to find answers to all of the questions before it.

"I want to slow down a little bit," King said. "There's plenty of investigation yet to be done."

The differences between chambers was on full display as the Senate -- which gives the top Democrat on committees the title of vice chairman, unlike House's "ranking member" equivalent -- stressed bipartisan cooperation, the same day the leaders of the House committee were planning to meet and discuss the state of their troubled investigation.

JUST WATCHED Putin: Election accustations are lies Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Putin: Election accustations are lies 02:29

Thursday's hearing was not entirely without reference to political issues. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, made the case that the committee needed access to President Donald Trump's tax returns in order to investigate whether he'd been influenced by Russians.

"We need to follow the money," Wyden said. He also sought to understand the ties between Putin's administration, Russian oligarchs and Russian crime organizations, saying: "Russia's corruption problem, may be our corruption problem."

Watts responded that Wyden should "follow the trail of dead Russians," a clear reference to Putin critics who have turned up dead.

Senate investigators are hearing from experts on disinformation tactics -- tools used by Russian operatives in the US elections and elsewhere to disrupt elections.

"We are seeking to determine if there is an actual fire, but so far, there is a great, great deal of smoke," Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat and vice chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks.

There is a brighter spotlight on the Senate committee to investigate Russian meddling in the election as its House counterpart has shattered along partisan lines, and even some Republicans calling on the Senate panel to lead Congress' probe.

Senate lawmakers also plan to interview former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander and FireEye chief executive Kevin Mandia, a pair of cybersecurity experts, who are expected to answer questions about how Russian agents and an army of trolls utilized "fake news" throughout the 2016 election.

"There were upwards of 1,000 paid Internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect, taking over series of computers, which is then called a 'botnet,'" Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Wednesday. "If you Googled 'election hacking' leading up to the election and immediately afterwards, you wouldn't get Fox or ABC, The New York Times, what you got is four out of the first five news stories that popped up were Russian propaganda."

Burr, meanwhile, said that he is keenly interested in Russia's attempts to influence European elections and whether Russian efforts in the US offer insights into their efforts to disrupt elections in Western democracies like France and Germany.

"We feel part of our responsibility is to educate the rest of the world about what's going on because it's now into character assassination of candidates," Burr said Wednesday.

Since that hearing, the House investigation has descended into chaos, but Senate investigators have stuck to a steady pace, largely ignoring their House colleagues.

Warner and Burr both said Wednesday they are taking a deliberative approach -- trying to learn as much as possible before calling in high-profile witnesses like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page and former Trump adviser Roger Stone.

JUST WATCHED Marco Rubio: Not God's plan that I be president in 2016 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Marco Rubio: Not God's plan that I be president in 2016 00:49

Seven professional staff from their committee have been given special security clearances to review the documents and now have access to the same materials usually limited to Congress' "Gang of Eight" -- the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and their respective intelligence committees.

And even though Manafort and Jared Kushner -- one of Trump's closest advisers who served as an intermediary for foreign policy and met with top Russian officials during the transition -- have offered to testify before Senate investigators, no date has been scheduled yet for them to come in.

Instead, Warner and Burr said that they have a list of 20 witnesses they plan to call in and have scheduled meetings with five of those witnesses so far. Both men declined to name those witnesses, but Burr implied it would be smart to expect Flynn to be on that list.

This story has been updated and will update to reflect breaking news.</s>Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, in his opening remarks, asserted that the hearing would provide a "foundational understanding of the problem."

Once again, however, evidence primarily consisted of speculation, and appeared to fall short.

“Russian propaganda outlets like RT and Sputnik successfully produced and peddled disinformation to American audiences” in favor of the campaign of Donald Trump, Vice Chairman Mark Warner asserted in his remarks, as if it was a well documented and proven fact.

“This Russian 'propaganda on steroids' was designed to poison the national conversation in America.”

“It is the totality of Russian efforts in plain sight — to mislead, to misinform, to exaggerate — that is more convincing than any cyber evidence. RT, internet trolls, fake news and so on, are an integral part of Russian foreign policy today,” Rumer claimed.

Roy Godson, a former Georgetown University professor still apparently stuck in the Cold War era, continuously referred to Russia as "the Soviets." He did admit that there is little evidence that Russia attempted to change vote tallies.

Former FBI agent Clinton Watts offered testimony about how "trolls" will push hashtags and stories on Twitter until they make it into the top 10 trending items — forcing mainstream media to cover the topic. Stating the obvious, he explained that once information gets on to Twitter’s trending list it will gain organic traction.

"This past week we observed social media campaigns targeting Speaker of the House Paul Ryan hoping to foment further unrest amongst US democratic institutions," Watts testified.

Many US Trump supporters took to Twitter following his comments to declare that the former agent was giving Russia credit for their efforts, as prominent supporters of the president have long voiced displeasure with Ryan.

Watts urged mainstream traditional media to boycott WikiLeaks, so that “Russian influence dies on the vine.”

He also claimed that the efforts did not just target Clinton during the primaries, but other politicians as well — specifically including Senator Marco Rubio, who was sitting on the panel.

"They were in full swing during both the Republican and Democratic primary season — and may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to Russian interests long before the field narrowed," Watts claimed. "Senator Rubio, in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered from these efforts."

"Former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia," Rubio said Thursday. "That effort was unsuccessful.”

“I would also inform the committee within the last 24 hours, at 10:45 a.m. yesterday, a second attempt was made, again, against former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to our internal information — again targeted from an IP address from an unknown location in Russia. And that effort was also unsuccessful."

Following the hearing, Rubio was asked by Sputnik News whether he was able to verify the person was actually in Russia and not just using a VPN to show a Russian address. He paused for an extended moment before answering.

“I’m going to stay with what I said in the committee and not outline anything further,” Rubio told Sputnik News, measuring his words carefully. “We’ve turned it over to the appropriate authorities and we’ll go from there.”

Earlier this month, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, told CNN that “hysteria in official Washington and in the American media” is harming relations between the two nations. He also vehemently denied Russian involvement in election-related hacking.

“This is unimaginable and someone has to say — all this is not true. We have to be sober, let’s come to our minds,” Peskov added.

On Tuesday, Burr and Warner spoke to reporters about their investigation.

Burr, a Republican, announced that seven staffers are working full time on the probe, compared to three on the Benghazi investigation. The smaller investigation into the 2012 attack cost American taxpayers over $7 million.

"This one's one of the biggest investigations that the Hill has seen in my tenure here,” Burr said.</s>Democrat politician says Moscow directed massive disinformation campaign 'designed to poison' US election conversation.

An American senator has alleged that Russia attempted to undermine the 2016 US presidential election with a propaganda campaign "on steroids".

Virginia Senator Mark Warner made the accusations on Thursday during a US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Warner, who was a technology executive before entering politics, described a sweeping Russian campaign using trolls and botnets, or networks of hacked or infected devices, to disseminate large amounts of disinformation.

"This Russian 'propaganda on steroids' was designed to poison the national conversation in America," Warner said.

Warner, a Democrat, also alleged Russian news organisations such as RT and Sputnik "produced and peddled" disinformation to American audiences in hopes of damaging former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was seen as the frontrunner in the 2016 presidential vote.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the accusations on Thursday calling them "lies". When asked if Russia interfered in the US vote Putin said, "Read my lips: No."

President Donald Trump should uncover Russian activities during the election, Warner said, even as he criticised the US leader for what he called "wild and uncorroborated accusations" that his campaign was wiretapped.

Warner's follow Democrat Senator Ron Wyden also urged the Senate to "follow the money" on Russia, adding real estate deals and money-laundering might mean the "Russian government may be only a step or two away" from American institutions.

In the same hearing, cyber-security expert Clint Watts said Moscow-directed disinformation campaigns were "strategically leaked" to damage the presidential prospects of candidates from both political sides.

Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute told Senator Marco Rubio that his presidential campaign was targeted by Russia.

Rubio was one of the rivals of then-candidate Donald Trump in the Republican presidential nomination.

Rubio later confirmed his campaign team was unsuccessfully targeted by cyber-attacks in July 2016, and again within the past 24 hours.

Watts also said in the past week, social media campaigns targeted House Speaker Paul Ryan.

He did not offer details but alleged the recent activities show Russia is continuing to seek further unrest among US democratic institutions, leaders, and their constituents.

Later Watts told reporters the "trolling networks", which his research institute monitors, were disseminating propaganda about dissension in the ranks of the Republican Party over the vote for Ryan as Speaker of the House.

There was no immediate comment from Ryan's office.

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Washington DC, said "the storm is just growing" in the US capital with different investigations looking into Russian spying and alleged links to the Trump campaign.

Putin dismissed what he called "endless and groundless" accusations of Russian meddling in the US election. He described the allegations as part of a domestic political struggle in the United States.

Trump has also dismissed suggestions of links with Russia as Democratic Party sour grapes after his surprise November defeat of the party's candidate, Clinton.</s>Hillary Clinton may not have been the only Trump opponent who came into the sights of Russian hackers during the 2016 election. According to testimony in a Senate hearing today, so did one of President Trump’s Republican primary adversaries: Senator Marco Rubio.

In a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rubio revealed for the first time that his campaign staffers were also targeted by hackers seemingly based in Russia. Those repeated attempts at intrusion, according to Rubio, came after he dropped out of the primary, and were unsuccessful. He added that in just the last 48 hours, those apparent Russian attacks had targeted his staffers again.

“In July 2016, shortly after I announced I’d seek re-election to the US senate, former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia. That effort was unsuccessful,” Rubio told the hearing. “I do think it’s appropriate to divulge this to the committee, since a lot of this has taken a partisan tone.”

Rubio went on to add that at 10:45am yesterday, a second attempt was made to target his staffers, also seemingly originating in Russia, also without apparent success.

The intention of the attacks Rubio describes is far from clear. Both attempted intrusions would have come months after Rubio dropped out of the presidential campaign in March of 2016. But testimony at another hearing earlier in the day also suggested that Rubio was also a target of Russian disinformation before he quit the race for president.

“Russia’s overt media outlets sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spectrum,” said Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “Senator Rubio, in my opinion, you suffered through these efforts.” Watts didn’t elaborate on that claim, and Rubio declined to comment on Watts’ testimony in the second hearing.

A US senators’ staff makes a natural target for Russian hackers, especially given the breadth of previous Russian intrusions that have hit all parts of the federal government, ranging from the Department of Defense to the State Department to the White House. Later in Thursday’s hearing, both Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich and Republican Senator John Cornyn said they’d also been targeted with phishing emails and attempted password resets on their accounts.

“I would expect that nearly all of you are targeted on a near-daily basis,” Kevin Mandia, the CEO of security firm FireEye, told the Senate committee.

Rubio’s reminder of the bipartisan nature of Russian hacking comes as a parallel House of Representatives investigation into Russian meddling in the US election has reached a new frenzy of partisan bickering. In its own hearing last week, House Republicans asked almost no questions about the intentions or methodology of Russian hackers or their possible connections to the Trump campaign. Instead, they focused on how hints of those connections had leaked to the press. House Intelligence Committee Republican Chair Devin Nunes later held a press conference focused on the surveillance of the Trump campaign—which Trump has referred to as illegal wiretapping—and briefed Trump himself on the matter without consulting the rest of the committee. He then cancelled a previously scheduled open hearings related to Russian collusion. (The New York Times reported Thursday that Nunes’ information on how Trump’s staffers were swept up in routine foreign surveillance was actually given to him by White House officials.)

I would expect that nearly all of you are targeted on a near-daily basis. FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia

The Senate, for its part, has vowed to run a more focused and objective inquiry. “This investigation’s scope will go wherever the intelligence leads,” Senate intelligence committee Republican chair Richard Burr said in a press conference Wednesday.

The FBI also continues to conduct its own investigation, which includes an active probe into whether members of Trump’s campaign staff colluded with Russia operatives to sabotage the Clinton campaign. FBI Director James Comey has remained tightlipped about details though, declining to answer dozens of questions from Congress about the investigation as he testified at last week’s hearing.

Rubio’s remarks on his targeting by apparently Russian hackers isn’t his first call for a unified response to those intrusions. In October of last year, he warned his fellow Republicans of the dangers of trying to capitalize on the hacks targeting the Clinton campaign. “Today it is the Democrats,” Rubio said. “Tomorrow it could be us.”

Former NSA director Keith Alexander, speaking to the Senate hearing Thursday, echoed that call for unity. “When you look at the problem and what we’re facing, it’s not a Republican problem, it’s not a Democrat problem,” Alexander said. “This is an American problem, and we all have to come together to solve it.”</s>Russia may have tried to undermine Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign, an expert witness told the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday.

Speaking at a public hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 election , Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that it included the primary elections, singling out Rubio, who is on the committee.

"Russia's overt media outlets sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spectrum," he said. "Senator Rubio, in my opinion, you suffered through these efforts."

The remarks about Rubio were not in a prepared copy of the testimony posted on the Senate Intelligence Committee's website. Watts did not elaborate on why he believes this, and Rubio did not ask about it. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In November of 2016, Rubio told CBS News he doesn't think Russian meddling, if it occurred, changed the outcome of the election, but the American people should be aware if there is evidence of a foreign intervention.

Those testifying at the hearing also said Brexit and other European elections should be examined for evidence of Russian interference.</s>WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that former members of his presidential campaign staff had been targeted by hackers based in Russia in July 2016 and within the past 24 hours.

"In July of 2016, shortly after I announced I would seek reelection to the United States Senate, former members of my presidential campaign team, who had access to the information of my presidential campaign, were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia," Rubio said,.

"That effort was unsuccessful. I would also inform the committee that within the last 24 hours, at 10:45 a.m. yesterday, a second attempt was made against former members of my presidential campaign team ... again targeted from an IP address from an unknown location in Russia. That effort was also unsuccessful."

Clinton Watts, a cybersecurity expert who had testified in the earlier portion of the committee hearing, had suggested that Rubio could have been a victim of Russia's hacking campaign during his unsuccessful run for president.

The Russians "win because they play both sides" — targeting both Democrats and Republicans — and would turn on President Donald Trump if they thought it was in their interest to do so, Watts said.

Rubio said later that he didn't want to comment, but he ultimately changed his mind and told the hearing that he had been targeted twice by entities with IP addresses based in Russia.

Rubio has long been a proponent of a more aggressive policy toward Russia. In a 2015 op-ed, for instance, Rubio argued in favor of "enlarging NATO" and sending lethal arms to Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression.

"A more robust response to Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine would reflect the same shared values that emerged victorious 70 years ago today," Rubio wrote then. "That victory was not just about the defeat of an enemy; it was also about the spread of a sacred ideal."

Read the original article on Business Insider. Copyright 2017. Follow Business Insider on Twitter.</s>WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said during a Senate intelligence hearing on Thursday that unsuccessful cyber attacks from Russia targeted former members of his presidential campaign staff in July 2016 and within the past 24 hours.

Rubio said he would not comment on a remark earlier in the hearing by Clinton Watts, a cybersecurity expert, that Rubio may have been victimized by Russian activity during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination against President Donald Trump.

The cyber attacks Rubio mentioned took place after the end of his campaign for the nomination.</s>U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio got some surprise news at a Senate hearing on Russian influence in the 2016 election — they may have been targeting him, too.

Clinton Watts, a national security expert with the George Washington Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on Thursday that suspected Russian trolling operations and websites tried to influence the presidential race long before the summer.

“Through the end of 2015 and the start of 2016, the Russian-influenced system began to push themes and messages seeking to influence the result of the presidential election,” Watts said.

“Russian overt media outlets and covert trolls sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spectrum with adverse views towards the Kremlin,” he said. “They were in full swing during both the Republican and Democratic primary season, and may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to Russian interests long before the field narrowed.”

“Senator Rubio, in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered from those efforts,” Watts told the Florida Republican directly.

Rubio looked up and turned to talk to someone sitting next to him following Watts’ remarks about him.

Earlier, Rubio said the country was “in the midst of a blitzkrieg” of Russian disinformation efforts aimed at “pit[ting] Americans against each other,” according to CNN.

CNN also quoted Watts as saying he was concerned about President Donald Trump’s reaction to revelations that the Russians were trying to damage his campaign opponents.

“My biggest fear is I don't know what America's stance is on Russia,” Watts said. “”I'm going to walk out of here ain’t nobody gonna have my back.”

Rubio could not be reached for comment about Watts’ testimony.

Rubio wants to name embassy street after murdered Russian dissident »</s>U.S. Senator Marco Rubio is preparing to launch a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, signing on a prominent fundraiser and planning trips to early voting states, ABC News reported on Friday, citing an adviser.

"He has told us to proceed as if he is running for president," an senior Rubio adviser was quoted as telling ABC.

Rubio has chosen Anna Rogers, the finance director for conservative group American Crossroads, to lead his fundraising effort, ABC reported.
During a Senate hearing, United States Senator Marco Rubio states that there have been post-election hack attempts against the U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rubio himself.