Homeland Security Chief Claims She Hasn’t ‘Seen’ Intel Reports on Putin Wanting Trump as POTUS
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen apparently pushed back today on the intelligence community’s findings that Russia wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 election.
Nielsen spoke to reporters after holding a closed-door congressional briefing today on election security. During the gaggle, Nielsen claimed ignorance over the 2017 conclusions from the DNI, the FBI, the CIA and the NSA that Vladimir Putin wanted Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton.
“I don’t believe I’ve seen that conclusion,” Nielsen said. ‘I’m not aware of that.”
Shortly afterwards, Nielsen tried to clarify her statement by saying its unclear if Russia had a “specific intent” favoring Trump — based on the actions they took in their 2016 cyber campaign. Here’s what she said about the IC’s judgments on Putin’s objectives.
When pressed, Sec. Nielsen tried to clarify her comments. "What we have seen the Russians do is an attempt to manipulate … public confidence on both sides … I do believe that Russian did try and will continue to try to manipulate on a whole variety of issues.”
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) May 22, 2018
Nielsen insisted, however, that there’s “no reason to doubt any intelligence community assessment.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee recently announced that they agreed with the U.S. intelligence community’s findings on Russia. As such, here’s the response to Nielsen from Senator Mark Warner‘s (D-VA) office.
Rachel Cohen, spox for Sen. @MarkWarner, just blasted this out to reporters in response to Secretary Nielsen's comments: https://t.co/hQ9iySal9Y pic.twitter.com/Uk13gLMRjk
— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) May 22, 2018
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
— —
>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
