Once again President-elect Trump and the intelligence community are at odds over Russia
President-elect Donald Trump, is once again at odds with the United States, intelligence community and once again he is very skeptical of the Russian hacking allegations. He stated that this week he would reveal some inside knowledge on the issue of hacking, but was not specific about what that might be.
Trump said he wants to be sure intelligence agencies get to the bottom of the situation, noting they had been wrong in the past. “I just want them to be sure because it’s a pretty serious charge,” Trump said. “If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong.”
The president-elect then went on to repeat what he has said many times before—it could have been somebody else. The difference is that this time he seemed to suggest he had some new information that could shed some light on what happened. “I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation,” he said.
When he was asked what it was that he knew that others don’t, Trump urged patience: “You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.” He did not elaborate but the president-elect is scheduled to meet with intelligence community leaders this upcoming week to discuss the hacking, although he has previously said the country needs to “move on to bigger and better things.”
It is not yet clear if President- elect Trump would discard the sanctions that President Barack Obama ordered last week on Russian spy agencies. Obama closed two Russian compounds, and expelled 35 diplomats the US alleged were really spies. The Russian government has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, the US intelligence community has been reporting that election tampering is the tip of a very big iceberg when it comes to what is being done by Russian hackers. They are coming close to being able to at the very least tamper with America’s electricity grid and in some cases shut some areas down.
A number of news agencies have been citing anonymous national security officials as sources is common and it’s no secret that US infrastructure has been horribly vulnerable for years. The news created a frenzy, with numerous politicians pinging in with dire warnings.
Yesterday, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer hit the brakes on that promise, saying Trump won’t actually reveal anything explosive. Spicer said on CNN, “He’s going to talk about his conclusions and where he thinks things stand. He’s not going to reveal anything that was privileged or was shared with him classified. I think he can share with people his conclusions of the report and his understanding of the situation and make sure people understand there’s a lot of questions out there.”
Trump has also suggested that “very important” information should be written out and “delivered by courier, the old fashioned way because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe.”
It remains to be seen if Trump does actually have the information that he says that he does or not. One things is for certain the last group of people an incoming president wants to upset is his intelligence community.
Also, there is strong bi-partisan support in both the houses of Congress to go even further than President Obama went with his sanctions. Be sure in 2017 there will be hearings into the issue of Russian hacking, no matter is soon to be President Trump wants them or not.
Some quotes were from Associated Press and the video is from World News.
