Trump afraid he’s not ‘legit’
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump continues to dismiss increasingly ironclad proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered hacking to influence the election because doing otherwise would cast doubt on his legitimacy, a top Senate Republican charged Sunday.
“I think he’s worried that inquiring into what Russia did in the election is going to undermine his credibility and his legitimacy,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked why he thinks Trump has been so reluctant to embrace overwhelming intelligence showing Putin ordered the hacks to harm Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
“Quite frankly, I haven’t heard any Democrat at all of prominence say that ‘we doubt that Donald Trump won,’ ” Graham said. “Putin’s not the reason that Clinton lost and Trump won. I don’t think anybody’s saying that. So, Mr. President-elect, that’s not what we’re trying to do.
“What we’re trying to do is find out what the Russians did in our elections and make sure that other people, including the Russians, won’t do it next time,” he added, before encouraging Trump to punish Russia.
“You should let everybody know in America, Republicans and Democrats, that you’re going to make Russia pay a price for trying to interfere,” Graham said. “Even though it didn’t affect the outcome, they tried to interfere. And they need to pay a price. And I don’t care what their motives were.”
But moments later, another top Republican dismissed the release of the report as a political ploy hatched by angry Democrats.
“The Democrats are blowing this up because they’re trying to change the narrative of what happened in this election,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Trump’s transition team, told “Fox News Sunday.” A joint intelligence report the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency released Friday stated Putin was behind various hacking attacks throughout the race and that he meddled in the U.S. election to help Trump win.
“I think he accepts the findings,” incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus said of Trump on “Fox News Sunday.” “He’s not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular campaign.”