{"id":83654,"date":"2016-12-12T02:26:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T07:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=83654"},"modified":"2016-12-12T02:26:55","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T07:26:55","slug":"trump-rejects-intel-lawmakers-vow-probe-russia-hacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/12\/12\/trump-rejects-intel-lawmakers-vow-probe-russia-hacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump rejects intel, lawmakers vow probe of Russia hacking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump<\/a>
Trump rejected the CIA’s conclusion that Russia tried to interfere with the presidential election and blamed \u201cvery embarrassed\u201d Democrats for the public release of the assessment. (Photo: Donald Trump\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014Donald Trump on Sunday called a recent CIA assessment of Russian hacking \u201cridiculous\u201d and says he’s not interested in getting daily intelligence briefings \u2014 an unprecedented public dismissal by a president-elect of the nation’s massive and sophisticated intelligence apparatus.<\/p>\n

Trump’s remarks come as key congressional Republicans joined Democrats in demanding a bipartisan investigation into the Kremlin’s activities and questioned consideration of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson \u2014 who has close business ties with Moscow \u2014 as head of the State Department.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he’s rejecting valuable intelligence on \u201cFox News Sunday,\u201d Trump was defiant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it when I need it,\u201d he said of the top-secret briefings sessions, adding that he’s leaving it up to the briefers to decide when a development represents a \u201cchange\u201d big enough to notify him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The CIA has concluded with \u201chigh confidence\u201d that Russia sought to influence the U.S. election on behalf of Trump. The finding alarmed lawmakers, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain who said Sunday he planned to put Sen. Lindsay Graham, a staunch Trump critic, in charge of investigating the claim.<\/p>\n

McCain also has questions about Tillerson’s business relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although it’s not clear Tillerson will be nominated. Sunday afternoon, Tillerson had still not been formally offered the job, according to a person with knowledge of the process who spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Exxon steadily expanded its Russian business on Tillerson’s watch even as its rivals faced expropriation and regulatory obstacles. In 2013, Putin bestowed the Order of Friendship on Tillerson.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe those ties are strictly commercial and got to do with his business in the oil business. Fine,\u201d McCain told CBS \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d And \u201cwe’ll give him a fair hearing. But is it a matter of concern? Certainly it should be a matter of concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain wasn’t alone in raising questions about whether there would be enough blowback to sink a Tillerson nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState,\u201d tweeted Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s former campaign rival and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey said the developments \u201craise serious questions about whether the incoming administration will adequately stand up to Russia’s aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said Tillerson’s relationship with Moscow was a selling point.<\/p>\n

\u201cA great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company,\u201d Trump told \u201cFox News\u201d in an interview broadcast Sunday. He called Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker impressive, and said former bitter rival Mitt Romney is still in the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all very different types of people,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you ask me about Rex, I mean, he’s a world-class player. There’s no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later Sunday, he Trump tweeted: \u201cWhether I choose him or not for ‘State’- Rex Tillerson, the Chairman & CEO of ExxonMobil, is a world class player and dealmaker. Stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Trump also rejected the CIA’s conclusion that Russia tried to interfere with the presidential election and blamed \u201cvery embarrassed\u201d Democrats for the public release of the assessment. The Washington Post first reported the CIA finding on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s ridiculous,\u201d Trump said of the CIA’s assessment.<\/p>\n

He added, however, that he doesn’t necessarily oppose President Barack Obama’s order for a review of campaign-season hacking. \u201cIf you’re gonna to do that, I think you should not just say ‘Russia.’ You should say other countries also, and maybe other individuals.\u201d The White House has said the probe would focus on any breaches by other countries, and past elections.<\/p>\n

Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus shrugged off allegations that Russia helped Trump win.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe Russians didn’t tell Clinton to ignore Wisconsin and Michigan,\u201d two states she was expected to win that went instead for Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe lost the election because her ideas were bad. She didn’t fit the electorate. She ignored states that she shouldn’t have and Donald Trump was the change agent,\u201d Priebus said on ABC’s \u201cThis Week.\u201d Trump’s win, he added, \u201chad nothing to do with the Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to business matters, Trump said he is leaving his worldwide enterprise to his executives and children, vowing, that he will \u201chave nothing to do with management.\u201d He’s expected to discuss the arrangement at a news conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He also said he is \u201cstudying\u201d the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions. But he doesn’t want the agreement to put the U.S. \u201cat a competitive disadvantage with other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also departed from Republican orthodoxy by vowing to heavily tax companies that leave the U.S. and then try to sell products here \u201clike we’re a bunch of jerks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the dumb market,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m a big free trader, but it has to be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014Donald Trump on Sunday called a recent CIA assessment of Russian hacking \u201cridiculous\u201d and says he’s not interested in getting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":83655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,483,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-politics","category-news-w","mauthors-laurie-kellman","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}