Trump questions Russian involvement in hacking

U.S. President Donald Trump in his first comments about a widespread data breach across the U.S. government downplayed the seriousness and impact of the cyber espionage campaign, and questioned whether Russia was to blame.

Fred Katayama reports.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday questioned whether Russia was behind the massive hacking spree that affected more than a half dozen federal agencies including the Commerce and Treasury Departments.

He also downplayed the seriousness and impact of the cyber espionage campaign.

Trump tweeted on Saturday: “The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality.

Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China.” But that goes against the words of his own Secretary of State.

In a Friday interview, Mike Pompeo said, quote: “We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity." Trump’s tweet tagged Pompeo as well as National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, who has yet to publicly comment on who was behind the data breach.

The State Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s tweet.

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, referred to Trump’s comments as a quote “scandalous betrayal of our national security.” The Kremlin has denied any involvement.