Homeland blindness on hacking

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Thursday echoed President Trump's insistence that Russia did not seek to aid his White House bid in 2016 — a claim directly contradicting the U.S. intelligence community's assessment of the Kremlin's election interference.

“I haven't seen any evidence” that Russian meddling was intended to help Trump, Nielsen said during an interview with NBC News' Peter Alexander at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Nielsen's stunning claim comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said outright he wanted Trump to beat former Hillary Clinton because he believed the political neophyte's policies would be more friendly to the Kremlin.

Nielsen said she had not seen any evidence that Russian hackers' intentions were “to favor a particular political party.”

However, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russian operatives reporting directly to Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump, who met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this week.

Trump has repeatedly trashed the intelligence community's assessment and said instead he accepts Putin's denials.

The CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency released a damning report in January 2017 that outlined the Kremlin's clear favoritism for Trump.

Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election” aiming to “denigrate Secretary Clinton” and showing a “clear preference for President-elect Trump,” according to the report.

When pressed by Alexander, she backpedaled and said she agreed with the intelligence community's assessment “full stop.”

“I agree with the intel community's assessment full stop – any attack on democracy, which is what that was, whether it is successful or it is unsuccessful, is unacceptable," Nielsen said.