In a first, Trump offers some acknowledgement of Russian hacking
In the past 24 hours, Mr. Trump offered two tweets that for the first time accepted the possibility of politically-motivated Russian hacking.
On Friday morning, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the hack revealed damaging information about the Democratic National Committee.
On Thursday, he wrote: “if Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
In fact, intelligence officials publicly blamed Russia in October - a full month before the election. But the tweets contrast with Mr. Trump’s previous skepticism that Russia was responsible.
“It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?” Mr. Trump said at the first debate.
On Thursday night, Hillary Clinton told her major donors that the Moscow-ordered hacking led to her defeat. The New York Times obtained audio of the remarks.
“Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert cyberattacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me,” she said. “This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”
President Obama agreed -- but also cast blame on the media.
“I think she’s worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and i don’t think she was treated fairly during the election. I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling,” Mr. Obama said on Friday.
Mr. Trump and his supporters also found coverage of his campaign troubling -- though for entirely different reasons: Those close to Mr. Trump say he’s hesitant to fully accept or call to investigate Russian hacking out of fear it would undercut or delegitimize his election.
