US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a bigger threat to world security than the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.
“I think ISIL can do terrible things … but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election,” McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Monday in an interview with ABC network during a tour of Australia.
Asked to evaluate the perceived threat posed by Putin, McCain said, “I think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIL.”
The Arizona Republican also said that although he had seen “no evidence” relative to Moscow successfully influencing the 2016 presidential election, he believed the Russians “tried, and are still trying.”
“They’re still trying to change elections. They just tried to affect the outcome of the French…