President-elect Donald Trump suggested early Friday morning that information the public needed was revealed through Russian hacking related to last month’s election.
Shortly after 6 a.m., Trump asked on Twitter if “the same cyberattack” U.S. intelligence agencies believe struck the Democratic National Committee and other groups was the one that revealed the DNC had been handicapping the presidential primary in favor of eventual nominee Hillary Clinton.
Emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta posted on WikiLeaks in October revealed that DNC officials had shared questions with her team ahead of events with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Clinton’s main rival in the primary.
The White House on Thursday doubled down on its claim that Trump knew about Russian hacking of the campaign well before Election Day, and a spokesman for the Obama administration called on the president-elect to cooperate with a congressional probe into the matter.
The cyberattacks and the response to them have become a point of increasing tension for the outgoing and incoming White Houses.
Last weekend, it was reported that the CIA believes Russia’s election interference was intended to help elect Trump — not merely to sow chaos and undermine faith in the Democratic process — a claim Trump has repeatedly denied.
On Friday, Twitter users including former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin accused the president-elect of “deflecting” from the main issue: