Senate to receive election security briefing

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the Senate will get an election security briefing, after weeks of public clamoring for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to agree to the demand.

Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor, indicated that the Senate GOP leader had agreed to his weeks-long call for an all senators to receive a briefing in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I have some positive news. I have spoken to the Republican leader about that request. He has assured me, we will have a briefing,” Schumer said.

He added that he and McConnell were still ironing out the timing of when the Senate briefing would take place but urged the GOP leader to hold it within weeks — before the Senate’s current work period runs out at the end of June.

Spokesmen for McConnell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The closed-door briefing comes as senators have mounted a bipartisan push in the wake of Mueller’s report to try to move election security through the Senate, but have run into high-profile opposition from McConnell and Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).