Trump Asks Why Russian Hacking Wasn’t Brought Up Before Election (It Was)

This morning, President-elect Donald Trump took to his favorite form of communication to give his latest thoughts on the reports that the CIA has concluded that the Russian government directed hacking to help him win the presidential election.

Following his interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace where he called the reports “ridiculous” and his -statement-in-response-to-report-on-cia-russia-assessment/”>transition team’s statement where the CIA’s intelligence gathering on Iraq’s WMDs was invoked to sully the intelligence agency’s reputation, Trump tweeted out that hackers may not be Russian and wondered why it hadn’t been brought up before the election.

Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016

He also claimed that if he were to have lost and then brought this up now, it would be labeled a conspiracy theory.

Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016

Of course, to say that the Russian hacking story hadn’t been discussed before Election Day would be false. Besides 17 intelligence agencies releasing a statement tying the hacking of emails of the DNC and others to Russia in October, and Hillary Clinton herself noting this at a presidential debate, Trump also tweeted about it in June.

After Trump sent out his tweets this morning regarding “hackers,” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a news conference saying “Russians are not our friends,” Trump communications director Jason Miller said he felt this was an effort to de-legitimize Trump’s victory.

.@JasonMillerinDC on bipartisan probe of Russian hacking: “What this is is an attempt to delegitimize President-elect Trump’s win”

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) December 12, 2016

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona