WASHINGTON – Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was the surprise focus on the first day of Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Russia.
"And may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to Russian interests long before the field narrowed, " Clinton Watts, a former FBI agent said.
He said Rubio was one of those candidates.
"Sen. Rubio, in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered from these efforts," Watts said.
The senator turned aside and spoke to an aide.
But after a recess, Rubio confirmed to the committee that he was, in fact, hacked during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"Former members of my presidential campaign team, who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign, were targeted by IP addresses within unknown locations inside Russia," Rubio said.
Rubio said it happened again, less than 24 hours ago.
"At 10:45 a.m. yesterday, a second attempt was made again, again former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to our internal information, again targeted by IP addresses within unknown location inside Russia," Rubio said.
In a rare public meeting today, both Republicans and Democrats agreed that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election.
Their hearings come after controversy with the House investigation. The chairman of that committee, Devin Nunes, is under fire after refusing to recuse himself, despite his questionable ties to the White House.
A report from the New York Times says two White House officials gave Nunes information that President Donald Trump later said "somewhat validated" his claims of illegal wiretapping.
The White House will now share information with the ranking Democrats on the intelligence committees.
But press secretary Sean Spicer would not say if those documents are the same ones that were provided to Nunes.
“I don't know. I have not seen the materials," Spicer said.
The Senate Russia investigation is still taking most of the attention, with the focus now on Florida's junior senator.