House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday it was “unfortunate” news outlets published questionable reports the Russian government harbors damaging information about Donald Trump’s personal and professional life, but she suggested Russia may have something on Trump that is allowing it to influence the president-elect.
“I have always wondered, what did the Russians have on Donald Trump that Donald Trump would question whether we should support our sanctions that we do have in Europe,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Wednesday.
Pelosi is among a handful of House and Senate lawmakers who were briefed Friday by Intelligence community officials about Russian hacking prior to the November election.
She said she could not share any of the classified information but seemed to steer clear of endorsing the CNN and BuzzFeed reports about Trump and the Russians, which she referred to as “any of that.”
“I frankly think it was unfortunate that uncorroborated information was released when many media organizations had this information and were not releasing it because it was not corroborated,” she said. “[T]he press had this information for a long time and had not acted upon it, maybe because you didn’t have enough proof and holding this to a high standard which I think you should. We’ll see what emerges.”
At the same time, Pelosi said she questions Trump’s views about Russia and his decision to nominate former Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Tillerson has spoken out against sanctions, although at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday he said his opposition stems from the sanctions hurting U.S. businesses.
Pelosi called the sanctions “essential to our national security,” and questioned why Trump would back Tillerson.
