President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday morning criticized the media for saying he sided with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and against the U.S intelligence community.
“The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange — wrong,” Trump tweeted Thursday.
Trump on Wednesday quoted Assange saying Russia did not provide his organization hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) — contrary to the intelligence community’s conclusions.
{mosads}”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!” Trump tweeted, referencing WikiLeak’s publication of private DNC documents over the summer.
Assange said in a Fox News interview Tuesday evening that the Obama administration was focusing on Russia’s alleged role in the Democratic hacks to “delegitimize” Trump’s election.
The intelligence community in October blamed Russia for the DNC hack, and a CIA assessment reportedly concluded that the Kremlin interfered in the election specifically to help Trump win.
Russia has denied any involvement in the election, and Trump has dismissed the intelligence findings as an attack on his legitimacy. Assange has insisted he didn’t get the hacked material from Russia.
The president-elect also often rails on the media, accusing it of biased and dishonest coverage against him.