Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Breaking News:


Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Banks Supports Intelligence Community After Trump/Putin Meeting

Representative Jim Banks (3rd, R-Columbia City) released a statement Monday afternoon supporting the American intelligence community in the wake of a joint press conference between President Donald Trump and Russian Presient Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders' press conference came after a two-hour meeting in Helsinki. During the press conference, Trump again downplayed Russian involvement in the 2016 election, saying he believed Putin's denials.

And Putin said while he wanted Donald Trump to win the U.S. presidency, he strongly denied Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

That support came in the wake of another round of indictments accusing Russian intelligence officials of hacking into Democratic campaign emails and voter information.

In his statement, Banks expressed support for Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a former Indiana senator. Coats compared the evidence of Russian election interference to the warnings evident before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Banks urged the Trump administration to take Coats' recent warnings seriously.

“Russia is not our friend. Vladimir Putin’s goal is to destabilize America and reduce our global leadership role," Banks said in his statement. "We need to hold Russia accountable for its aggression and make it clear that America will protect our democratic institutions.”

 

Rebecca manages the news at WBOI. She joined the staff in December 2017, and brought with her nearly two decades of experience in print journalism, including 15 years as an award-winning reporter for the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne.