Conway Insists Trump ‘Respects the Intelligence Communities’ That He’s Actively Not Respecting

During the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

“We have 17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin. And they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.”

It was a comment that was dismissed at the time by her Republican rival Donald Trump; at one point during the debate season, he alleged that we have no way of knowing if Russia was involved in hacking the DNC emails or other sensitive information. Rather, as he eloquently phrased it at the time, it “could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

On Friday however it was reported by The Washington Post that a secret CIA assessment of the hacks confirmed Russian involvement, and that the goal of the hacks was to support Trump’s candidacy. A senior U.S. official said, “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected. That’s the consensus view.”

A consensus view, at least for the intelligence community. As for Mr. President-elect himself? “Ridiculous,” he told Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday this weekend.

“It’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Trump said of the report. “Every week it’s another excuse. We had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the Electoral College.”

Despite Trump’s defiance that he’s right and the intelligence community is wrong, senior aide Kellyanne Conway felt confident on Monday morning to assert that he boss outright “respects the intelligence community.” You know, the same intelligence community he’s blatantly disrespecting.

Conway, speaking to George Stephanopoulos of Good Morning America, doubled down in her defense of Trump’s comments, angling for nuance rather than answer questions head-on.

“The President-elect isn’t just questioning that CIA assessment,” offered Stephanopoulos. “He is also questioning the on-the-record assessment of 17 intelligence agencies that Russia was trying to meddle in this election. He says he doesn’t believe it. Why?”

She began to respond, “Because these are all unsourced, off-the-record comments…” before being promptly corrected.

“You had 17 intelligence agencies all saying Russia was part of this!” Stephanopoulos continued. Trump’s former campaign manager argued that the President-elect was rather questioning reports that the Kremlin directly sought to aid in his election directly.

A bipartisan effort led by Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham and Democrats Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed have called for further investigation into Russia’s meddling role. In a joint statement released Sunday morning, they wrote, “Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks. This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country.”

Watch above via GMA.
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[image via screengrab]