President-elect
Donald Trump trashed the reported assessment by the Central
Intelligence Agency that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential
election in an effort to help him win the White House, calling it “just
another excuse” pushed by the Democrats to undercut his stunning
victory.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump told Chris Wallace in interview that aired on “Fox News Sunday,” his first Sunday show sit-down since winning the election. “I don’t believe it.”
In
October, 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, concluded
that Russian hacking of American “political organizations” like the
Democratic National Committee was an attempt to undermine confidence in
the U.S. electoral system. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that the CIA now says it is now “quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal.
“If
you look at the story and you take a look at what they said, there’s
great confusion,” Trump told Wallace. “Nobody really knows, and hacking
is very interesting. Once they hack, if you don’t catch them in the act
you’re not going to catch them. They have no idea if it’s Russia or
China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed s
Trump said he believes that the Post report is part of an effort by the Democrats to deflect responsibility for their defeat.
“Every
week it’s another excuse. We had a massive landslide victory, as you
know, in the Electoral College,” Trump said. “I think the Democrats are
putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the
history of politics in this country.”
Trump
collected 306 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232. Clinton,
though, leads Trump in the popular vote by more than 2.6 million, with
absentee votes still being counted in several states, including
California.
On
Sunday, Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham joined
Democrats calling for a full-scale investigation into the reports,
saying in a joint statement that the CIA’s report of Russia’s efforts in
the election “should alarm every American.”
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Mc
The president-elect’s skepticism of the intelligence community goes beyond its assessment of Russian interference. Trump has alarmed observers by declining many of the daily intelligence briefings that have been offered to him since the election.
“First
of all, these are very good people that are giving me the briefings,”
Trump told Wallace “And I say, ‘If something should change from this
point, immediately call me. I’m available on one minute’s notice.’ I
don’t have to be told — you know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t
have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for
the next eight years.”
In 2012, however, Trump criticized President Obama for skipping intelligence briefings.
In his Fox interview, Trump also defended his push to keep U.S. companies like Carrier from moving jobs out of the country.
“We’re
going to have to impose a major tax on companies that leave, build
their product and think they’re going to sell it right through our
border like we’re a bunch of jerks,” Trump said. “That’s not free market
when they go out and they move and they sell back into our country.”
“But that’s the free market,” Wallace said.
“No. That’s the dumb market, OK? That’s the dumb market,” Trump replied. “I’m a big free trader, but it has to be fair.”
Trump
said he’s getting “very, very close” to naming his secretary of state,
and called Rex Tillerson — head of ExxonMobil and reportedly one of the
finalists for the top Cabinet post — “much more than a business
executive.”
“He’s
a world class player,” Trump said. “He’s in charge of, I guess, the
largest company in the world. He’s in charge of an oil company that’s
pretty much double the size of his next serious competitor. It’s been a
company that’s been unbelievably managed. And to me, a great advantage
is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive
deals in Russia.”
Others
are critical of Tillerson’s business ties to Russia, which would be
likely to come up during a Senate confirmation hearing if Trump chose
the oil executive to lead his State Department. Sen. Marco Rubio,
R-Fla., who ran against Trump in the primary, tweeted Sunday that he
didn’t want anyone close to the Kremlin to spearhead Trump’s foreign
policy team.
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