Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said the United States is "at war" with Russia and President Donald Trump is "compromised" during an appearance on CNN's New Day on Thursday.
"We are at war right now. It is a cyber war. Unfortunately, because our commander-in-chief is compromised, the federal government is asleep at the switch," Perez said. "And that's why the DNC and others in the Democratic Party eco-system are working tirelessly to make sure we are protecting our data, making sure we're working with every campaign to provide cyber-security training because we can't expect help from this administration."
Host Alisyn Camerota questioned Perez about the DNC's pledge to not use hacked material for political gain in the 2020 election.
"You're sticking with this, even if you get juicy oppo-research of some kind about President Trump through ill-gotten tactics somehow, you are sticking with this position?" Camerota asked.
"Here's what I'm sticking with. This isn't about right versus left. This is about right versus wrong. A foreign adversary, Russia, they hacked the DNC, they hacked others. They did so with the intent to interfere with our presidential election. What we said in the letter is when we have such activity, if someone calls you and tells you, I'm going to rob a bank, your response should be, I'm going to call the authorities," Perez said. "When the Russians called Donald Trump and said, I have dirt on Hillary Clinton, they should have called the authorities. Instead they said, tell us what you've got. That's not right."
"What we are saying is we need to restore the basic institutions of our democracy. That should have been a lay-up. but again as we saw in the reporting, the Homeland Security Secretary, the former one, wasn't even allowed to bring it up. We are at war, it is a cyber war, but our commander-in-chief is compromised," Perez continued.