Tom Williams/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — A Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Americans need “to be very aware that the Russians are trying to interfere in our election” any way they can “regardless of who the candidate is.”

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford told ABC News This Week Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz that Russia’s aim is to disrupt American elections.

Raddatz asked the senator about a report that first appeared in The Daily Beast that the Russian intelligence agency targeted Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri as she began her 2018 re-election campaign. There is no evidence that the hacking attempt was successful.

Lankford said one side of the Russian cyberattack on U.S. elections is to spread misinformation, and another side is “hacking into computers as they did for the [Democratic National Committee in 2016], hacking into state election systems … So for Americans, they’ve got to be able to pay attention to what information’s coming in front of them.”

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign in an attempt to help President Trump.

But Lankford said Russia aims to upend the U.S. electoral system generally, not to attack particular candidates.

“The Russians are trying to interfere with everyone’s election, and that’s the part that we lose track of,” the Oklahoma Republican said. “To them, sowing chaos and sowing uncertainty within our democracy is their key goal.”

McCaskill said in a statement last week that she “would not be intimidated” by Russia.

“Russia continues to engage in cyberwarfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable. While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this,” the senator’s statement said.

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