Graham: Russians hacked me and they hacked DNC's Podesta, too

Sen. Lindsey Graham thinks Russia was behind the election-related hacks, because he says they did it to him when he was running for the Republican nomination for president.

"I do believe the Russians hacked into the DNC, I do believe they hacked into [Clinton Campaign Chairman John] Podesta's email account. They hacked into my campaign account," the South Carolina Republican told CNN Wednesday.

Graham said in August the FBI told his campaign that the vendor they were using had been hacked in June.

Graham said he doesn't think the election was decided by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, he said, "Hillary Clinton lost because she wasn't an agent of change and she tried to disqualify Trump and she wasn't able to do it."

"I do believe that all the information released publicly hurt Clinton, didn't hurt [President-elect Donald] Trump," Graham said. "But I don't think the outcome of the election is in doubt. What we should do is not turn on each other but work as one people to push back against Russia.”

"They're trying to destabilize democracy all over the world not just here. It's just not about pulling for Trump, it's bigger than that. They're trying to break the backs of Democracies," Graham said. "Here's what we should do. We should tell the Russians that on no uncertain terms, you interfere in our elections, we don't care why, we're going to hit you and hit you hard. I'm going to introduce sanctions, they will be bipartisan that names Putin as an individual, his inner circle, for not only hacking into our political systems but trying to destabilize democracy throughout the world."

Graham's call got the support of Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. "I'm down Lindsay," McCaskill tweeted, misspelling Graham's first name.

On Thursday, Graham repeated his allegations that Russia was behind the attacks on Fox but reiterated he didn't think they had swayed the election.

"I’m not challenging the election results, Donald Trump won the election; there’s no evidence that they tried to change how ballots were cast — the Russians," he said.

Graham is one of several Republican lawmakers who have said that Russia meddled with the election. So, too, have the U.S. intelligence community and the White House.

Trump, however, remains unconvinced of Russian involvement.

“If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?” he tweeted.

However, the U.S. intelligence community announced in October they were “confident” Russia was behind the hacks.

There are currently multiple congressional investigations and a federal criminal investigation probing Russia's involvement.

“Here’s President Trump’s dilemma: What are you going to do?” Graham asked on Fox Thursday. “Now if you don’t believe that the Russians were involved in interfering in our election then I am really troubled by that because I have been briefed. I don’t think anybody who’s heard these briefings doubts that the Russians were interfering in our elections.”

But he also sided with Trump in questioning President Obama’s reaction, calling him “AWOL in the face of aggression all over the world.”