Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) issued a stern warning to his Republican colleagues this week over their newfound love for the website WikiLeaks.
“These leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it,” Rubio told ABC News in a statement published Wednesday. “Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us.”
Rubio, who ran against Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary, said he would refrain from discussing any information that wouldn’t have come to light without the help of the website known for publishing classified and leaked information.
“I will not discuss any issue that has become public solely on the basis of WikiLeaks,” the senator said.
Trump has shown no such reluctance, regularly attacking his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, using findings published by WikiLeaks. Many senior Republican figures and Fox News personalities who were extremely critical of WikiLeaks in the past now speak positively about it.
Earlier this month, WikiLeaks began publishing the hacked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The messages involve some politically sensitive material, including excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches to banks from several years ago in which she endorses fiscal and trade policies at odds with her presidential campaign positions.
The Clinton campaign has accused the Russian government of being responsible for hacking Podesta’s email.
In July, WikiLeaks also published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that suggested the party establishment had been opposed to the presidential candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of being behind the DNC hack, but Russia has denied any involvement in the breach. The White House has asked the CIA to plan a possible retaliatory cyberattack against the country, NBC News reported.
