Sure, Putin hacked us, but I like him

PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump, in his first press conference in nearly six months, admitted the Russian government was behind hacking efforts that likely swayed the U.S. election, but suggested he would continue to cultivate close ties with Moscow.

“I think it was Russia,” Trump said, publicly expressing for the first time agreement with U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated hacking efforts against the Democratic National Committee and high-level Democratic Party operatives.

But he maintained that being liked by the Russian strongman — a conclusion some have drawn from inteligence suggesting Putin desired a Trump win — was an “asset, not a liability” and said that he would “hope to . . . get along with him.”

Nearly 300 journalists crammed into the marble lobby of Trump Tower for Wednesday’s 58-minute press conference — Trump’s first as President-elect.

The mogul said he’d nominate a justice to the current Supreme Court vacancy within two weeks of his inauguration and would begin negotiations with Mexico on the funding of his promised border wall immediately after he takes office.

He said the funding would come from either direct payments from Mexico, or taxes.

Trump also discussed his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare, saying that he and his Republican colleagues would offer a replacement for Obama’s health care law “essentially simultaneously” with the timing of the confirmation of his health and human services secretary, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.).

Trump’s last press conference occurred on July 27, just days after he was nominated at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He had initially planned to hold his first press conference as President-elect in mid-December — a session that had been expected to focus primarily on how he’d disentangle himself from his international real estate company — but postponed it.