Johnson concerned about Russia meddling in election

Madison — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Friday he was concerned that Russia "is probably meddling in our electoral process as they've done in other places in Eastern Europe" but he doesn't think the attempted intervention will change the outcome.

Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, made his comments during a brief interview with reporters.

Russian hackers penetrated the Democratic National Committee computer system, cyber security experts told the Washington Post in July, a charge denied by Russian officials. Russian-based hackers were behind two attempts to get into state voter registration databases, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Johnson brought up the possibility of Russian intervention in the presidential election when asked to comment on GOP nominee Donald Trump expressing concerns that the general election results might be "rigged."

"I think their goal here is to de-legitimize the election, which is not a good thing," Johnson said of the Russians. "We hold elections and then elections matter and in the end we recognize the legitimacy of those things."

"That being said, I don't think Russia has the capability of changing the outcome of the election," Johnson said. "I think all they can do is again meddle and make people uncertain of the outcome, which is not a good thing."

Johnson was also asked to comment on a flurry of tweets that Trump sent early Friday denouncing the former Miss Universe winner he once ridiculed for gaining weight.

"We have enormous challenges facing this nation," said Johnson, in a tough re-election fight against Democrat Russ Feingold. "We have to be talking about how we realize the full potential of our economy here. It's just disappointing even on a presidential level that these campaigns just devolve into so many nonsense issues when we have so many enormous challenges economically, internationally. That's my response to that."

Trump's tweet storm against Alicia Machado was also brought up in a conference call involving Republican U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, a key surrogate for Trump in the state.

Duffy said "we've seen a dialogue take place between both campaigns that I think in different elections we'd look back and go, 'What conversation is happening in America?' "

Duffy added that Trump has "masterfully navigated the politics and the issues that he talks about are the issues resonating with the American people. Do I think Americans care about the attacks that Mrs. Clinton made in the debate? Or Mr. Trump's responses? I don't think a whole lot because the Obama economy has been so bad for us and there is such a rejection right now of the last eight years of Obama that we're in a whole new space."

Patrick Marley reported for this story in Madison and Gill Glauber reported from Milwaukee.