WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump rejected as “ridiculous” reported U.S. intelligence findings that Russia intervened in the presidential election on his behalf through targeted hacking, according to an interview broadcast Sunday.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Trump said in the interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
The Republican president-elect’s comments pits him against some leading foreign policy voices in the U.S. Senate from his own party who on Sunday expressed alarm about election meddling by Moscow and called for a bipartisan investigation.
U.S. intelligence agencies have told Congress and the administration of President Barack Obama that Russia has stepped up activities in cyberspace, including meddling, sometimes covertly, in European and U.S. elections.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told Reuters that intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that not only did their Russian counterparts direct the hacking of Democratic Party organizations and leaders, but they did so to undermine Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the U.S. election.
Congress to investigate
Trump questioned whether the CIA was behind the reports that indicated Moscow wanted him in the White House. “I think the Democrats are putting it out,” he said in the interview.
McCain said Sunday he was at a loss to explain Trump’s repudiation of the reports.
“I don’t know what to make of it because it’s clear the Russians interfered,” McCain said on CBS.
“Whether they intended to interfere to the degree that they were trying to elect a certain candidate, I think that’s a subject of investigation, but the facts are stubborn things,” he said.
McCain and fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham joined Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed on Sunday in expressing concern over possible Russian interference in the presidential election, and they said they will work together to investigate such cyber attacks.
“Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American,” they said in the statement. “This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country.”
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would have a subcommittee led by Graham begin investigating the Russian hacking immediately.
Trump advisers disputed elements of the news reports, focusing particularly on a New York Times story saying that intelligence officials concluded the computer systems of the Republican National Committee also had been hacked. The fact that material from that intrusion had not been released, the Times reported, supported the conclusion that Russia was trying to help Trump.
“The RNC was absolutely not hacked,” incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump would not interfere with any congressional inquiry, but she also said the president-elect regarded the spate of hacking reports as part of an effort to relitigate the election.
“He absolutely respects the intelligence community,” Conway said on CBS. “What he has said is laughable or ridiculous is that this was meant to elevate him to the presidency.”