Mike Pence is defending his President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets casting doubt on the U. S. intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government was behind the hacking of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
But in a subtle but notable move, Pence has backed up his running mate without ever saying that he agrees with Mr. Trump’s skeptical view of the nation’s intelligence services.
In a recent tweet, President-elect Trump appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over U. S. intelligence. President of Diligence LL…
At a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, Pence called Mr. Trump’s skepticism “very sincere” and “healthy.”
“Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the President-elect made it clear to the American people that he’s skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy,” Pence said with House Republican leaders at his side as he justified Mr. Trump’s tweets.
“I think the American people hear him loud and clear,” Pence added.
Those comments come ahead of a Friday briefing where the duo will be briefed by the heads of major intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and CIA, about the hacks.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he was unsure if Russia was responsible for the hacks and has argued that “we ought to get on with our lives.” On Wednesday, Trump on Twitter referenced comments by Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks and the publisher of many of the Democratic emails, to push back on the assertion that Russia was behind the hacks.
Julian Assange said « a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta » – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
Previous comments by Pence suggest that he actually may not totally agree with Trump on the hacking issue. At the very least, the two are striking markedly different tones.
In a mid-October interview with Fox News Sunday, Pence was asked whether he believed Russia was behind the hacks and whether it trying to influence the election. “I think there’s no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction,” he said at the time, “and we should follow it where it leads.”
He continued: “There should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America.”
Upon receiving his first intelligence briefing as a Vice Presidential candidate in September, Pence also expressed his “gratitude” to U. S. intelligence personnel and spoke glowingly of their “professionalism” and “thoroughness.” That briefing happened around the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks .
“The American people owe a debt of gratitude to the thousands of men and women each and every day who get up and ensure that we have the information to ensure a day like that never happens again in America,” Pence said at the time.
Trump has been far less effusive of his praise of American spies. After it became clear the CIA believes Russia performed the hacks with the intention of helping Trump , the president-elect’s team responded by mocking the agency over its performance in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” read a statement from Mr. Trump’s transition team. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’”
President- elect Trump continues to level new criticism at the community despite plans for an intelligence briefing on Friday. Justice and Homela…
Mr. Trump’s skepticism toward the reports into Russian involvement in the hacking have met a mixed response from his fellow Republicans. A few, most notably Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain , have emphatically defended US intelligence and pushed back against Trump’s doubts.
“This was done by the Russians, and I hope by Friday, President-elect Trump will come to that realization,” Graham said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, urging Trump to “condemn” and “ignore” Assange.
Graham also called Trump’s tweets on the issue “very disturbing.”
On Thursday morning, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers will testify before at a hearing convened by McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which will address Russian hacking during the election.
Some Republicans who are inclined to be hawkish on Russia without criticizing Trump struggled on Wednesday. Rep. Martha Blackburn was asked in an interview with CNN whether she viewed Assange, who has repeatedly published sensitive U. S. documents pertaining to national security, as a credible source. “Mr. Trump has a direct line of communication with the American people,” she began, in an apparent attempt to dodge the question.
“I don’t know if I would put a whole lot of trust in Julian Assange…it’s not someone that I put on page one to find out what’s going on,” she then said when pressed on the issue.
Despite calling the Wikileaks founder a “sychophant for Russia,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to weigh in on Trump’s tweets in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt Wednesday morning. But the Speaker expressed hope that Trump would “get up to speed about what has been happening and be better informed about it.”
While the intelligence community remains united that Russia was behind the hacks that reportedly interfered with the election, President-elect Tr…
Other Republicans have joined in Trump’s attacks against the nation’s intelligence services and gone even further than the President elect. Last month, New York Republican Rep. Peter King, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and currently a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, asserted that CIA director John Brennan orchestrated a “hit job” on Trump.
For their part, Democrats, who generally are more critical of the CIA and other intelligence services, have come to the defense of the agencies in response to Trump.
“To suggest that we don’t have sophisticated tools that allow us to know who has conducted hacks is ill informed and to suggest that somehow that we should rely more on Julian Assange than the intelligence community is deeply misguided,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons declared late Wednesday afternoon at a press conference following a meeting with Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.
“I suspect there is going to be a strong bipartisan pushback,” Coons predicted, “if the president elect and senior leaders in his administration continue along this path.”
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Ним став колишній сенатор від штату Індіана Ден Коутс (республіканець). Політику 73 роки, він був сенатором шість років. До цього, при президенті США Джорджі Буші-молодшому працював послом Сполучених штатів в Німеччині, повідомляє CNN. 
Про це повідомляє CNN з посиланням на джерела, знайомі з доповіддю національної розвідки. 
韓国の尹炳世（ユンビョンセ）外相は６日午後、長嶺安政駐韓日本大使を外交省に呼んだ。韓国外交省によれば、尹氏は釜山総領事館前の少女像を巡る日本の対抗措置を遺憾とする韓国政府の考えを伝えた。日韓関係の悪化について、韓国政府が深刻に受け止めている状況の表れとみられる。 
【ワシントン時事】トランプ次期米大統領は５日、トヨタ自動車のメキシコ工場新設計画をツイッターで批判し、「米国に工場を建設するか、国境で巨額の税を支払え」と求めた。トランプ氏がツイッターで日本企業を批判したのは、昨年１１月の大統領選勝利後初めて。脅しとも受け取れる見解は波紋を広げそうだ。 
東京都の小池百合子知事は６日、今年最初となる定例記者会見で、夏の都議選に向け「改革の同志が多く挑戦し勝利を収められるよう、あらゆる選択肢をもって進めていく」と述べ、強い意欲を示した。小池氏の政治塾からの候補者選びを進めるとともに、自身を支持する現職議員らを支援する方針だ。 候補擁立の規模は「改革派がマジョリティー（多数派）を占めるために、流動的な政治力学を考えながら判断する」と話すにとどめたが、関係者によると３０〜４０人規模を目指すという。 既存政党との協力は「選挙の時だけでなく、東京大改革を進める仲間であることが確認できるか」がポイントと指摘した。
韓国・釜山の日本領事館前に 設置された 慰安婦像をめぐり、菅義偉官房長官は1月6日午前の 記者会見 で対抗措置を発表した。 
On Twitter Thursday morning, Donald Trump objected to news stories that have suggested he places a higher value on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s statements than on the findings of the U. S. intelligence community. 
Veteran Indian actor Om Puri, star of British hit East is East, has died aged 66, a family member has told the BBC. 
JTA 
