Mike Pence is defending his President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s tweets casting doubt on the U. S. intelligence community\u2019s 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\u2019s skeptical view of the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s skepticism \u201cvery sincere\u201d and \u201chealthy.\u201d
\u201cGiven some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the President-elect made it clear to the American people that he\u2019s skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy,\u201d Pence said with House Republican leaders at his side as he justified Mr. Trump\u2019s tweets.
\u201cI think the American people hear him loud and clear,\u201d 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 \u201cwe ought to get on with our lives.\u201d 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. \u201cI think there\u2019s no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction,\u201d he said at the time, \u201cand we should follow it where it leads.\u201d
He continued: \u201cThere should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America.\u201d
Upon receiving his first intelligence briefing as a Vice Presidential candidate in September, Pence also expressed his \u201cgratitude\u201d to U. S. intelligence personnel and spoke glowingly of their \u201cprofessionalism\u201d and \u201cthoroughness.\u201d That briefing happened around the 15th anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks .
\u201cThe 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,\u201d 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\u2019s team responded by mocking the agency over its performance in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
\u201cThese are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,\u201d read a statement from Mr. Trump\u2019s transition team. \u201cThe election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It\u2019s now time to move on and \u2018Make America Great Again.\u2019\u201d
President- elect Trump continues to level new criticism at the community despite plans for an intelligence briefing on Friday. Justice and Homela…
Mr. Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s doubts.
\u201cThis was done by the Russians, and I hope by Friday, President-elect Trump will come to that realization,\u201d Graham said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, urging Trump to \u201ccondemn\u201d and \u201cignore\u201d Assange.
Graham also called Trump\u2019s tweets on the issue \u201cvery disturbing.\u201d
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. \u201cMr. Trump has a direct line of communication with the American people,\u201d she began, in an apparent attempt to dodge the question.
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I would put a whole lot of trust in Julian Assange\u2026it\u2019s not someone that I put on page one to find out what\u2019s going on,\u201d she then said when pressed on the issue.
Despite calling the Wikileaks founder a \u201csychophant for Russia,\u201d Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to weigh in on Trump\u2019s tweets in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt Wednesday morning. But the Speaker expressed hope that Trump would \u201cget up to speed about what has been happening and be better informed about it.\u201d
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\u2019s attacks against the nation\u2019s 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 \u201chit job\u201d 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.
\u201cTo suggest that we don\u2019t 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,\u201d Democratic Senator Chris Coons declared late Wednesday afternoon at a press conference following a meeting with Rex Tillerson, Trump\u2019s pick for Secretary of State.
\u201cI suspect there is going to be a strong bipartisan pushback,\u201d Coons predicted, \u201cif the president elect and senior leaders in his administration continue along this path.\u201d<\/p>\n

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