President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time
Wednesday that he believes Russian operatives hacked the Democratic
Party during the election, but he continued to dispute intelligence
reports that Moscow acted to help him win.
“I think it was
Russia,” Trump said at a news conference in New York when asked who was
responsible for the public leaks of Democratic emails during the
campaign.
But Trump emphasized that he believes Russia also would
have released damaging information about him had they obtained such
information. He angrily denounced news reports that U.S. officials had
obtained an unsubstantiated dossier of potentially compromising personal
information Russia has allegedly gathered about him, citing denials
from the Kremlin that it has any such intelligence.
U.S.
officials reportedly included a two-page summary of the dossier in
classified briefings of Russia’s meddling in the election to President
Obama and, separately, to Trump last week. Trump and his aides,
including Vice President-elect Mike Pence, called the leaks of the
information a smear campaign that aimed to damage Trump politically.
“It’s
a disgrace that that information would be let out,” Trump said. “I saw
the information; I read the information outside that meeting. It’s all
fake news — phony stuff. It didn’t happen.”
Trump also addressed questions about his relationship with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has expressed a desire to
improve bilateral relations.
“If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess
what folks, that’s an asset not a liability,” Trump said. “I don’t know
if I’ll get along with Vladimir Putin . . . but even if I don’t does
anyone in this room think Hillary Clinton would be tougher on Putin than
me? Give me a break.”
Trump made his remarks in his first news
conference as president-elect, ending a period of 167 days since he has
fielded questions from the full media contingent. Past winners of the
presidency have traditionally faced the media much earlier.
An
estimated 250 journalists were crowded into the lobby of Trump Tower,
where Trump aides had set up 10 American flags in front of a blue
curtain.
During the news conference, Trump announced that he has tapped David
Shulkin, a physician who is serving in the Obama administration as
Veterans Affairs undersecretary, to lead VA. And he detailed plans to shift his business assets into a trust managed by his sons
and give up management of his private company, a step that will help
the business executive move closer to resolving potential conflicts of
interest.
He also again resisted the idea that he should release
his tax returns, saying “the only ones that care about my tax returns
are the reporters” and suggesting the public does not care about the
issue.
Earlier in the day, Trump had charged via Twitter that his
“crooked opponents” are trying to undermine his electoral victory. He
accused the intelligence community of leaking the information to get in
“one last shot at me,” saying, “Are we living in Nazi Germany?”
At the news conference, Pence and Sean Spicer, who has been tapped to
be White House press secretary in Trump’s administration, also
denounced news organizations for their reports on the unsubstantiated
dossier.
Trump and his aides took particular aim at CNN, which
broke the story that intelligence officials had included it in their
briefings, and BuzzFeed News, which published a copy of the dossier in
full. Trump refused to allow a CNN reporter to ask a question.
“You are fake news,” Trump said to the reporter, Jim Acosta, who had shouted out in an attempt to be called upon.
The president-elect called BuzzFeed “a failing pile of garbage.”
“It’s a disgrace what took place, and I think they ought to apologize to start with,” he said.
U.S.
officials said that intelligence agencies have not corroborated the
allegations contained in the dossier but believed the sources involved
in the reporting were credible enough to warrant inclusion of their
claims in the highly classified report on Russian interference in the
presidential campaign.
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