Trump ‘accepts Kremlim role’ in hacking
"Putin is not the reason Trump won and Clinton lost . . . But I hope you will join Republicans and Democrats to push back against this." Lindsey Graham
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump has finally accepted that Russia was behind the hack of Democrat emails, his chief of staff has said, as the incoming president’s team embark on an offensive to assuage mounting concerns about his reluctance to believe US intelligence reports.
Reince Priebus, the most ‘‘establishment’’ member of Trump’s top team, went on a chat show yesterday to say Trump now accepted the Kremlin was to blame. The president-elect, he said, ‘‘is not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular hacking campaign’’.
The comments mark the first time anyone from Trump’s senior team has accepted the intelligence findings. He also said Trump would retaliate.
But even as he was saying it, another of Trump’s senior staff members, Kellyanne Conway, was still referring to ‘‘alleged attacks’’ and refusing to confirm Trump would punish the Kremlin.
Conway, who appears to be a permanent fixture at Trump’s side and with perhaps a closer understanding of the president-elect than many in his team, insisted on turning the questions around to emphasise Trump legitimately won the election.
The Republican appears to be smarting from the idea that people are suggesting he did not fairly win the election.
‘‘All of this amounts to a simple fact: alleged attacks on our democracy failed,’’ Conway said. ‘‘Donald Trump won. Hillary Clinton was viewed as unlikeable – that had nothing to do with Moscow.’’
When asked why she insisted on referring to the hack as ‘‘allegedly’’ coming from Russia, she replied: ‘‘Alleged to interfere with our democracy, and they did not succeed.’’
She added: ‘‘I keep hearing that we’re so reluctant [to accept Russian blame].
‘‘Yes he sees. Read his statement. He knows that Russia tries to hack. But where was the outcry when China hacked 21 million citizens? Everything changed when the election result was not what they anticipated.’’
The day before, Trump was still tweeting in anger at the disclosures about Russian involvement, insisting the hack had not won him the election, though there have been no suggestions the voting process itself was hacked.
‘‘Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!’’ he tweeted.
Lindsey Graham, who challenged Mr Trump for the Republican nomination, attempted to soothe the president-elect, saying: ‘‘Putin is not the reason Trump won and Clinton lost . . . But I hope you will join Republicans and Democrats to push back against this.’’
He added: ‘‘If after the briefing he is still unsure, that will shake me to the core.’’ .