President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign didn’t need WikiLeaks to help the billionaire win the election, claims former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
“We didn’t need WikiLeaks to convince the American people they didn’t like her, didn’t trust her or find her to be honest,” Conway, who will be a senior White House advisor, said of former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Conway appeared Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” sparring with host Jake Tapper over the intelligence community’s report on Russian interference in the presidential election.
Tapper pressed Conway on why Trump kept mentioning WikiLeaks’ release of hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta as well as those from the Democratic National Committee during his campaign rallies.
“He didn’t know that at the time,” Conway said of Russia’s role in the hacking. “He said he didn’t know who the source is.”
A declassified intelligence report released Friday concluded that Russia hacked into the DNC’s email accounts in order to “denigrate” Clinton and help Trump.
