President-elect Trump does not believe that WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange is a “good guy,” incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Sunday, defending Trump for mentioning Assange in tweets over the past week
“He doesn’t think this guy is a good guy,” Priebus said. “He put in quotes things that he had said. He didn’t say ‘I support this guy.’ He didn’t say ‘I think he’s a good guy.'”
“Why even quote him? Why give him any credibility?” Wallace retorted. “He’s the president-elect.”
Priebus claimed that Trump’s point was to simply highlight the faulty security by the Democratic National Committee by pointing out Assange’s claim that a 14-year-old could have hacked their systems.
“You have staffers opening up emails that say ‘I’m stranded in Mali and I need $20,000, click on this link,’ and the DNC is clicking on these links,” Priebus said. “Nobody thinks that Assange is a great guy, I can assure that, but I think the issue here is, yes, bad foreign actors, but it’s also the DNC that has allowed itself to be hacked by about anyone in the world, and that’s one of the reasons why this was a big deal.”
The incoming chief of staff’s claims come days after Trump tweeted three times about Assange, two of which came after Fox News’ Sean Hannity interviewed Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Trump also pushed back against chatter that he is in “agreement” with Assange, claiming that he was only quoting him.
