Politics

Trump Calls Obsession Over Russian Hacking ‘Political Witch Hunt’

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
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President-elect Donald Trump the intense focus on Russian hacking in the election is a “political witch hunt” in an interview with The New York Times ahead of his scheduled briefing from the CIA Friday.

“This is a political witch hunt,” he told TheNYT, attributing the recently dominant media narrative to his adversaries upset by the results of the election. Other successful hacks of American institutions did not get the same media attention, he added.

“China, relatively recently, hacked 20 million government names,” he added, referring to the country’s break into computers at the Office of Personnel Management in 2014 and 2015. “How come nobody even talks about that?”

The CIA and other intelligence agency’s conclusions regarding Russian meddling in the election have dominated the news cycle following Trump’s win in the election. In particular, reports that Russia specifically worked to help Trump win generated widespread attention in recent weeks, presenting Democrats with an opportunity to solidify the narrative that Trump and Putin are too cozy.

CIA Director James Clapper will brief him on a report of Russia’s meddling Friday.

“With all that being said, I don’t want countries to be hacking our country,” Trump added. “They’ve hacked the White House. They’ve hacked Congress. We’re like the hacking capital of the world.”

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