President-elect Trump said definitively Wednesday he believes the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta was done by Russia.
“As far as hacking, I think it was Russia, but I also think we’ve been hacked by other countries, other people,” Trump said.
Trump has been reluctant to put the responsibility for the hacking of the DNC and Podesta’s emails on Russia, instead claiming there’s no way to know who’s responsible for the hacks. He was briefed by intelligence officials last week specifically on Russian activity related to the election.
Trump said Wednesday he believes there are hacking attempts by all countries on the United States.
The Democrats should have protected themselves better, he added. “They did a very poor job, they could have had hacking defense, which we had,” Trump said.
Trump has been accused of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Wednesday he said there’s a “good chance he won’t get along with Putin. “If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what folks? That’s called an asset, not a liability,” Trump said. “Now I don’t know that I am going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do, but there is a good chance I won’t.”
