Contrary to Intel and Own Secretary of State, Trump Fingers China in Cyberattack, Absolves ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’
Chris McGrath, Getty
“Russia, Russia, Russia,” said President Donald Trump mockingly, in a Saturday tweet about the massive cyberattack on the United States. His remarks come less than 18 hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explicitly said Russia is “clearly” behind the attack.
“The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality,” Trump wrote in his tweet, referring to the hack that Pompeo told conservative radio host Mark Levin was a “very significant effort” by Russia.
“Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of…discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!),” Trump’s two-tweet thread continued.
As he did earlier with an op-ed about an editorial on Stephen Colbert‘s interview with Joe Biden, Trump then tied the subject of the tweet to his continuing claims that the election was stolen. “There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA,” he wrote.
The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020
….discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!). There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA. @DNI_Ratcliffe @SecPompeo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020
Significantly, Trump tagged both Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe in the tweet, which intentionally or not serves to highlight the opposite conclusions.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also explicitly highlighted the difference in conclusions between American intelligence and Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
Increasingly clear that Russian intelligence conducted the gravest cyber intrusion in our history
The process of determining its extent & assessing the damage is underway
Remediation will take time & significant resources
Our response must be proportional but significant
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 19, 2020
Rubio echoes Pompeo’s assertion that “we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity.”
