The heads of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee appeared together on a panel Thursday morning and did not agree on whether a candidate should use hacked or stolen material against an opponent.
CNN:
"There should be no stolen material or hacked material -- and especially when it comes from foreign adversaries -- in any of our campaigns," [DCCC Chairman Rep. Ben Ray] Luján said.
"Everyone needs to agree on this. They should not use it. It's bad for America, it's bad for our democracy," he said.
[NRCC Chairman Rep. Steve] Stivers responded that Luján had been "pushing this in the media and talking about this a lot."
"Once something's in the public domain, I'm not sure if you can say, 'Everybody, let's just ignore it,'" Stivers told NBC's Kasie Hunt. "This is out there.
"Things that are in the public domain that you have reported on, and other reporters in the room have reported on, then you're going to ask us to make sure none of our candidates use things that are in the public domain that you've reported on -- that's really hard," he said. "I'm looking forward to having the conversation with Ben today."
The two men were scheduled to meet on the issue Thursday afternoon.
Luján needled reporters who were present to focus on the act of material being stolen by foreign adversaries, rather than on its contents.
"The media needs to understand when they're reporting about stolen, hacked materials, that you're contributing to the encouragement of the stealing of those documents," Luján said.
"Half the reporters in here have covered it, Ben," a laughing Stivers said.
"I understand that," Luján shot back. "We all have a responsibility to make sure that we're protecting our democracy and fighting against foreign actors in America."
Stivers responded that he was looking forward to their conversation later Thursday -- but that he wouldn't urge his candidates not to use materials that have been made public.
House Democratic, GOP campaign chiefs clash over using hacked materials in midterms (CNN)