John McCain acknowledged that garnering enough support to create a select committee would take time. | Getty McCain wants select committee to investigate Russian hacking

GOP Sen. John McCain called for forming a select committee on Sunday to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"I would like, in an ideal world, to have a select committee," the Arizona Republican told John Dickerson on CBS' "Face the Nation."


But McCain acknowledged that garnering enough support to create a select committee — the same type of committee that investigated, among other things, Watergate and the Benghazi attacks — would take time. In the meantime, McCain said, he would ask Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to chair a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services to investigate the Russian interference, "along with a really smart Democrat."

"We'll go to work on it," McCain said. "We'll go to work immediately."

McCain and Graham joined incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) earlier Sunday morning in calling for an investigation. McCain told Dickerson that he didn't know what to make of President-elect Donald Trump's comments in a Fox News Sunday interview that the idea that the Russians worked to help elect him was "ridiculous."

"It's clear the Russians interfered," McCain said. "Now, whether they intended to interfere to the degree that they were trying to elect a certain candidate, I think that's a subject of investigation."

But trying swing the election one way or another wouldn't be out of character for Russia, McCain said.

"The Russians have interfered in a lot of other elections," McCain said, using hacking as a tool "as part of Vladimir Putin's ambition to regain Russian prominence and dominance in some parts of the world."

McCain is heading to the Balkans with Graham soon to reassure leaders there that the U.S. will continue to stand up to "the threats and the bullying of Vladimir Putin."

"They are very worried," McCain said when asked whether Balkan leaders were concerned about Trump's stances on Russia. "And they're not the only ones."

McCain also reiterated his concerns about ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, who is seen as Trump's most likely choice for secretary of state and has ties to Putin after negotiating deals in Russia.

"Maybe those ties are strictly commercial and got to do with his business in the oil business," McCain said. "Fine. We'll give him a fair hearing. But is it a matter of concern? Certainly it should be a matter of concern."