Trump Aides Push Back on Suggestions of Russian Meddling

Donald Trump’s top aides on Sunday said the president-elect isn’t ready to accept the finding by intelligence agencies that Moscow hacked Democratic emails in a bid to elevate Trump. And that even if it’s true, they said, Trump still won the White House fair and square.

The pushback came a day before members of the Electoral College formally cast their votes for Trump as the 45th president. While Democrats were likely powerless to stop it, they suggested Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton would forever be tainted by Russian meddling.

“This whole thing is a spin job,” said Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus. “And I think what the Democrats ought to do is look in the mirror and face the reality that they lost the election.”

The CIA says U.S. intelligence agencies agree that Moscow was behind the cyber break-in of the Democratic National Committee.

Still, Priebus told Fox News Sunday that intelligence officials “haven’t been totally upfront and transparent in their opinion as to who, what, when and how this all happened.”

He says even if Moscow did interfere, Democrats still lost because they’re out of touch with voters.

The partisan swipes mostly ignored warnings by foreign policy experts that part of Russia’s calculation also was likely payback for years of U.S. criticism of its own elections and a desire to portray America as a flawed champion of democracy — potentially weakening U.S. power on the world stage.

Many lawmakers, including some leading Republicans, say voters may not have been swayed by the release of tens of thousands of private emails. But the fact that a foreign power tried to intervene in U.S. democracy and exploit divisions in American politics is cause for alarm.

Still, Trump’s transition team and loyalists on Capitol Hill weren’t buying it, at least not on the eve of the Electoral College vote.

“Where’s the evidence?” asked Kellyanne Conway, another close Trump adviser, on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.

Asked about President Barack Obama’s vow to retaliate against the Russians, Conway said: “It seems like the president is under pressure from Team Hillary, who can’t accept the election results.”

.@KellyannePolls responds to reports electoral voters troubled by Russian hacking. Says electors potentially undermining democracy pic.twitter.com/GyBYpKJkWa

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 18, 2016

Democrats say it’s unlikely the public will ever hear detailed evidence because doing so would disclose classified sources and methods. But after last week’s declaration by CIA Director John Brennan that there was “strong consensus” that Russia hacked Democrats to try to sway the election, lawmakers are demanding closed-door briefings and a separate congressional investigation.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said an unclassified intelligence review could be released within the next two or three weeks.

As president-elect, Trump would have access to high-level intelligence on the matter, although it’s unclear what he’s been told. Trump has previously called the intelligence finding of Russian involvement “ridiculous.” On Sunday, Conway said she wasn’t privy to the same intelligence briefings as the president-elect and couldn’t say what he knows.

Donna Brazile, interim head of the Democratic National Committee, said the DNC was no match for a sophisticated foreign power in cyberspace that “weaponized” private emails to “sow misinformation and to sow discord” between Clinton and her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Brazile, who appeared on ABC’s This Week, said the cyberattacks against the DNC occurred every day through the end of the election. The comment seemed to contradict Obama’s assertion that they stopped after he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.