As much of the nation fixed on the Russia probe results, lawmakers from Tennessee responded on Thursday by asking Americans to move forward and focus on other key issues.
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann spoke of the need to achieve more “civility” in both politics and everyday conversation during the Rotary Club of Chattanooga meeting. While he didn’t directly acknowledge the report, he said that Russia is dangerous, but China is a bigger concern.
“[Democrats] thought this Mueller report was going to be an ‘I got ya,’ and it wasn’t, so I really hope we can move beyond that,” Fleischmann told the Times Free Press after the meeting. “When you look at the magnitude, the size of the Chinese economy, where they are going militarily, the resources that they have available to them – vis-a-vis the Russia threat – Russia does not have the resources to compete with the United States. Sadly, China does, and is and will, and they will be our main competitor.”
Fleischmann said he was unaware that Thursday’s report mentioned a fake Twitter account the Russia-based Internet Research Agency used to impersonate the Tennessee Republican Party, but said that interference in the U.S. election process is “intolerable.”
U.S. Sen Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., took to Twitter saying, “It is time for both sides to stop hyperventilating over the Mueller investigation,” and calling for a renewed focus on reducing health care costs and making college education worth it for students.