Trump:
It’s time ‘to move on’ from claims of Russian interference in
election
The
president-elect also pledges to meet with leaders of the intelligence
community ‘to be updated on the facts.’
By NOLAN D.
MCCASKILL 12/30/16, 3:28 AM CET
Insisting it’s
time “to move on,” President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he
will nonetheless meet next week with leaders of the intelligence
community “to be updated on the facts” of alleged Russian
cyberattacks.
“It’s time for
our country to move on to bigger and better things,” he said in a
statement. “Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its
great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community
next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”
Trump has long been
skeptical of the widely accepted consensus from U.S. intelligence
agencies that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election with
cyber intrusions against the Democratic National Committee and
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal email account.
Trump and his transition team have dismissed such reports as
Democratic efforts to delegitimize Trump’s presidency before he
even takes office.
Trump’s comments
follow the White House announcement of sanctions against Russia. It’s
unclear whether Trump plans to reverse the sanctions as president. In
the past, he has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and
indicated that the U.S. will have a warmer relationship with Moscow
under his leadership.
“All Americans
should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” President Barack Obama
said in a statement, which warned that more retaliatory measures may
be on the way. “These actions are not the sum total of our response
to Russia’s aggressive activities. We will continue to take a
variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which
will not be publicized.”
Trump’s transition
team had signaled that the president-elect would support a
congressional probe into Russia’s alleged cyberattacks if the
intelligence community provided clear evidence that the Kremlin
meddled in the presidential election.
The Department of
Homeland Security and FBI released a joint report Thursday dubbed
Grizzly Steppe that “provides technical details regarding the tools
and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military
intelligence Services (RIS) to compromise and exploit networks and
endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of
U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities.”
Incoming White House
press secretary Sean Spicer, specifically, had called on the
intelligence community to offer proof of the Russian government’s
interference.
“If we’re gonna
make such broad, sweeping claims about the involvement of anybody in
the legitimacy of an election and the integrity of our election
systems, then I think we need to have the intelligence community come
forward publicly and on the record and make it clear exactly how this
happened and who was responsible for it,” he told CNN.
“Right now, we
continue to get unsourced media accounts for what the activity is,
and I think that’s not — that’s not acceptable,” he
continued. “If truly there is someone to blame, then I think that
we should have Congress notified, go through the appropriate
congressional hearings, get the intelligence community — as they
did in October — come out very publicly with the findings that they
have.”
Indeed, Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper publicly blamed the Russian government in October for
cyber intrusions against U.S. political organizations and persons
that they maintained were authorized by “Russia’s senior-most
officials.”
The DHS and FBI
report was an expansion of the October assessment and came as part of
the Obama administration’s response to Russia’s interference. The
White House has suggested Putin himself directed the attacks, and CIA
Director John Brennan reportedly told his workforce this month that
he, Clapper and FBI Director James Comey were all in agreement that
Russia meddled to boost Trump into the White House.
Obama announced
sanctions Thursday against “the Russian government’s aggressive
harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S.
election.” They include the closure of two Russian compounds and
the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence operatives and, according to
Obama, are also a response to the harassment of American diplomats
“by Russian security services and police over the last year” in
Moscow.
A spokesman for
Putin said Russia, which has continued to deny responsibility for the
cyberattacks, regrets the sanctions and will consider retaliating
against the U.S., according to The Associated Press.
The president said
his administration will send a report to Congress on Russia’s
meddling “in the coming days.” Congress has not been briefed on
the Russian cyber intrusions but will convene on Tuesday.
Trump’s repeated
denial was a clear break with members of his own party, though some
Republicans have tried to defend the president-elect’s skepticism.
House Speaker Paul Ryan applauded the White House’s “overdue”
response, calling Obama’s executive order “an appropriate way to
end eight years of failed policy with Russia.”
“Russia does not
share America’s interests,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “In
fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous
instability in the world.”
Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blamed the Obama administration for
failing to dissuade Russia from attempting to hack America’s
cybersecurity systems or harass U.S. diplomats. But he commended the
sanctions as a positive step.
“Sanctions against
he Russia intelligence services are a good initial step, however late
in coming,” he said. “As the next Congress reviews Russian
actions against networks associated with the U.S. election, we must
also work to ensure that any attack against the United States is met
with an overwhelming response.”
Arizona Sen. John
McCain said he agrees with Trump in that it is time to move on —
but with a caveat. “We need to get on with our lives — without
having elections being affected by any outside influence, especially
Vladimir Putin, who is a thug and a murderer,” he said Thursday
during a tour with the Baltic states, according to Reuters.
While South Carolina
Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested this week that 99 of the 100 U.S.
senators accept that Russia meddled in the presidential election,
Trump remained dubious as recently as Wednesday night.
“I think we ought
to get on with our lives,” he told reporters Wednesday when asked
about sanctions against Russia.
He blamed computers
for complicating “lives very greatly” and argued that the “age
of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what is going on.”
Graham and McCain
echoed Ryan in a joint statement that also announced their intention
to spearhead a push for stronger congressional sanctions against the
Kremlin.
“The retaliatory
measures announced by the Obama Administration today are long
overdue,” the senators said. “But ultimately, they are a small
price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy.
We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger
sanctions on Russia.”
Ryan and Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have expressed support for
congressional investigations. Ryan, however, backs an ongoing House
Intelligence Committee probe into cyber threats from foreign
entities, and McConnell has dismissed calls for a select committee,
instead highlighting the Senate Intelligence Committee as the
appropriate panel to conduct a review.
Former Michigan Rep.
Pete Hoekstra, an adviser to Trump’s transition team and a former
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said “it’s very,
very healthy” for Trump “to be skeptical and put pressure on the
intelligence community to make sure that they put forward great
information.”
Arizona Rep. Trent
Franks, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, suggested
that the Russian government simply did what American media failed to
do.
“If anything,
whatever they might have done was to try to use information in a way
that may have affected something that they believed was in their best
interest,” he told MSNBC. “But the bottom line: If they succeeded
— if Russia succeeded in giving the American people information
that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have
done.”
Trump friend Roger
Stone said it would take more than CIA director John Brennan for him
to be convinced that Russians hacked the election.
“No Republican
member of the Senate and House Intelligence community has seen
proof,” Stone said. “We have the claims of people like John
Brennan, who is just not credible. These people making the claims are
just not credible. This is a Clinton-campaign talking point.”
Stone, who posted
online days before the Wikileaks release that they were coming, said
he wasn’t worried about being implicated in an investigation.
“I have nothing to
be worried about. I am not worried. My tweets related to Wikileaks
have nothing to do with the Russians and have nothing to do with John
Podesta. I have had no contact with the Russians. I’ve been through
this 100 times. I have never been to Russia. I do not have Russian
clients. I was not involved in this process whatsoever.”
He also said that it
was time to move on, much like Trump has said.
“No one is going
to overturn an election based on a claim of Russian hacking. No one
argues that the actual voting machine can be hacked. Trump won the
election.”
Josh Dawsey
contributed to this report.
Authors:
Nolan D. McCaskill
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