‘Why Wasn’t This Brought Up Before Election?’: Trump Just Lied About Russia’s Hacking

It Even Came Up During All Three Presidential Debates

Donald Trump continuing his misinformation campaign about Russia hacking U.S. interests and intervening in the elections. The president-elect, who clearly benefitted from Russia’s hacking of the DNC and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails, is now claiming that Russia’s actions weren’t even reported before the election.

That’s wholly false – both parts. But let’s focus on the second.

To be clear, it was “brought up before election” – and even discussed with Trump during one of the few national security briefings he chose to attend before the election. That he was briefed on Russia’s involvement was widely reported in the media. 

“To profess not to know at this point is willful misrepresentation,” a senior U.S. intelligence official in October told NBC News. “The intelligence community has walked a very thin line in not taking sides, but both candidates have all the information they need to be crystal clear.”

It was also discussed during all three of the presidential debates, and Trump vociferously denied Russia’s involvement, despite claiming he knew nothing at all about Russia.

“I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC,” Trump lied during the first debate. “She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China,” Trump said on Sept. 26, as NBC News reported. “It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?”

NBC News also reported that in August “classified materials prepared for the first briefing and examined by NBC News showed U.S. officials had drawn ‘direct links’ between Vladimir Putin’s government and the recent hacks and e-mail leaks.”

And the network also notes that “the intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security went public with their conclusion that the hack originated in the Kremlin, issuing a joint statement” in October (see tweet above for statement).

“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.” 

The statement added, “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”

Some responses via Twitter: