BIDDEFORD — U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine has again called for the declassification of information pertaining to Russia’s involvement in November’s presidential election. 

King, an Independent, told CNN International on Monday it was “dangerous” for President-elect Donald Trump to ignore the many reports from the U.S. intelligence community that suggest the Russian government hacked various Democratic political affiliations with the intent of influencing the U.S. presidential election. 

Trump has several times denied Russia’s involvement, but King echoed his own sentiments in a planned visit to the Journal Tribune on Tuesday. 

“There’s virtually no doubt that Russia was involved in this election,” King said. “They have a conscious, deliberate, sophisticated strategy to undermine Western values.”

King was one of seven U.S. senators, the rest of whom were Democrats, who penned a Nov. 29 letter to President Barack Obama calling for the public release of information regarding potential meddling in the election on behalf of the Russian government. 

King said last year he traveled with the Senate Committee on Intelligence, of which he is a part, to Poland and Ukraine, where he met with military, political and intelligence officials. 

In those meetings, he said, officials told him the Russians for years had been involved in fake news, propaganda and illegal political funding to undermine the democratic process in their countries. 

“They said, ‘The Russians are trying to screw up our politics … they’re doing everything they can do destabilize and discredit our democratic system,’” he recalled. “I come back and suddenly, in the summer, I learn they’re doing it here.” 

It is “absolutely critical” the public be made aware of Russian involvement in the election, King said, because he believes the dissemination of information is the best defense against national security issues. 

“The best defense we have is for the public to know what the hell is going on,” King said, adding that countries overseas take Russia’s dealings with “a grain of salt because they know it’s happening to them.” 

“In our country, we’ve been oblivious to it,” he continued. “This has to be as public as possible. We can defend ourselves against hacking, but we’ll never be able to perfectly defend ourselves.” 

King said he is also concerned about President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday announcement he has chosen Rex Tillerson, chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., to be secretary of state, due to Tillerson’s close ties to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. 

“Appointing someone who’s had major business ties to Russia — Russia’s an adversary,” King said. “They are actively trying to undermine Western values and democracy all over the world and here, and that’s a concern to me. 

“I don’t think Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation by the Senate is assured,” he said. 

Chellie Pingree, Democratic congresswoman for Maine’s 1st Congressional District, echoed King’s concerns about Tillerson in a release Tuesday, criticizing Tillerson’s lack of diplomatic experience and raising questions about his Russian affiliation. 

“With all that we are discovering about Russia’s work to sway the outcome of our election, it’s deeply troubling to see a possible Secretary of State who not only has ongoing business interests in Russia but a personal closeness to Vladimir Putin,” she said. “I urge my colleagues in the Senate to look at all of these questions very closely.” 

However, King said he would not publicly decry nor support any of Trump’s nominees until he hears for himself how their plans would be detailed should they assume office. He said that, as a former governor, he’s predisposed and inclined to vote for any president’s nominees, because he believes in the authority to name one’s own team.

“On the other hand, I think a basic standard is you should support the mission of the agency you’re appointed to lead,” he said, again critical of Tillerson’s ties to Russia.

King said the same principles apply in Trump’s nomination of Scott Pruitt, attorney general of oil- and gas-heavy Oklahoma, as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt, who is a skeptic of climate change, is currently suing the agency over its Clean Power Plan, part of President Obama’s legacy plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in the electrical power sector. 

“I’m keeping my powder dry on the nominees until we go to the hearings,” King said. “I’m doing something unusual: I’m going to go to as many hearings as I can even if I’m not on the committee, because I want to hear Rex Tillerson’s answers myself.”

King said in light of the potential Russian meddling, it’s important for people to be what he calls “digitally literate,” and understand the difference between real and fake news that could have an impact on people’s political opinions.

He said when he first implemented the Maine Learning Technology Initiative in 2002, the goal was to help middle school students learn what’s fact versus fiction. Calling the internet a tool subject to misuse, he said now more than ever it’s important people understand what is truth and what is not. 

“Part of what we undertook (with MLTI) was a conscious strategy called digital literacy, teaching kids to distinguish what was factual and not on the internet,” he said. “Frankly, our whole society needs that education.” 

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected].