"He's being really dumb to do this." -Senator Schumer on Trump taunting US intelligence agencies https://t.co/QbGSmx9Xvp
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 4, 2017
New Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump is “being really dumb” by taking on the intelligence community and its assessments on Russia’s cyber activities.
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”
{mosads}Trump said Tuesday evening that an intelligence briefing on Russia’s cyber activities “was delayed until Friday” and suggested that intelligence agencies weren’t prepared. NBC News reported, however, that the briefing was always planned for Friday.
“The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” the president-elect wrote on Twitter.
Intelligence officials have reportedly determined that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump win the White House. President Obama has ordered a full report on the issue, and last week he put in place new sanctions against Russian intelligence organizations and individuals, in addition to expelling 35 Russian officials from the country and closing two stateside facilities used by the Russians for intelligence purposes.
Trump’s transition team responded to the initial reports about the CIA’s findings by drawing comparisons to its intelligence about supposed weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Schumer said that as he understands, intelligence officials are “very upset with how [Trump] has treated them and talked about them.”