I’LL BLAME IT ON BAM
Sees no evil in Vladimir
Donald’s new hack attack
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday to deflect blame from Russia — once again — for hacking efforts to sway the presidential campaign, even suggesting that the White House was only concerned about the matter because Hillary Clinton lost the race.
“If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House waite (sic) so long to act?” Trump tweeted, a post that contained an obvious misspelling. “Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
The tweets came a day after reports indicated Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the cyberattacks that targeted Democrats ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
Last week, it was reported that the CIA concluded Russia meddled in the presidential election in an effort to ensure a Trump victory.
Lawmakers across both parties have since called for investigations and hearings into the matter and top House Republicans have requested briefings from the CIA about Russian interference in the election. But the agency has so far declined to offer one, prompting anger and frustration.
“I have not heard anything from the CIA. To me what happened has been disgraceful,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower Thursday. “The CIA has repeatedly told us that they have no idea what the intent was, if there is an intent, it’s to disrupt the election, create confusion and cast a cloud over the winner.”
The White House reiterated its accusation that Trump knew the Russians were interfering in the election.
“It’s obvious to everyone who’s paying attention, including the gentleman whose thumbs offered that tweet that the impact of that malicious activity benefited the Trump campaign and hurt the Clinton campaign,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during his daily press briefing.
“That is, after all, why the President-elect called on Russia to hack Secretary Clinton’s email,” Earnest said referring to Trump’s comments in July encouraging Russian hackers to look for Clinton’s deleted emails.
“That is presumably why the coverage of the hack and leak operation that Russia carried out was focused on emails from the Democratic Party and Clinton campaign staffers and not the Republican Party and Trump campaign staffers. It wasn’t a secret. It’s obvious what the impact was,” he said.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday night, Trump didn’t mention the hacking controversy, but called Earnest “a foolish guy.”
“This foolish guy, Josh Ear-
nest. He delivers their message so bad. He could deliver a positive message bad,” Trump said.
“The President’s very positive, but he’s not so positive,” he continued. “Maybe he’s getting his orders from someone else.”
Obama, who has said he warned Putin about consequences for the attacks, has called for a full investigation into the hacks — to be completed before he leaves office. After his morning tweets, Trump pressed ahead with additional cabinet and cabinet-level decisions Thursday, announcing Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) as his choice for interior secretary.
He also made two appointments to his National Security Council: Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as chief of staff and executive secretary and Monica Crowley, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fox News Channel commentator, as its senior director of strategic communications.
Fox announced she’d been terminated after her appointment was announced.
Trump also appointed Larry Kudlow, a CNBC commentator, as his chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, according to Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.
And he might be bringing in a real heavy hitter to join his administration — “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone.
The Daily Mail reported Trump has approached Stallone about naming him as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Whether the “Rambo” star will take the gig is a cliffhanger — the 70-year-old actor is reportedly mulling the offer over.
The President-elect also appeared closer to making room in the White House for his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Ivanka Trump has already begun making calls to members of Congress regarding prospective legislation on child care, one of the issues she would focus on, The Independent Journal Review reported Thursday.
Trump also announced the nomination of bankruptcy attorney David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Friedman said he looked forward to carrying out his duties from “the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem,” even though the embassy is in Tel Aviv.