Trump defends Russia, slams White House on Twitter
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E-mail Xinhua, December 15, 2016
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday questioned the probe into election-related hacking that is allegedly linked to Moscow, hinting the White House only bothered to look into the matter now Trump has won.
"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?" Trump tweeted.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest admitted Wednesday that the president had known about the hackings prior to the election, but refrained from acting on it to avoid being seen as "meddle in the election."
The New York Times reported Wednesday that hacker groups linked to the Russian government have been actively trying to obtain information from the Democratic National Committee since last year.
Trump's rant came as a deep rift between Trump and the establishment widened regarding their stance on Russia.
Trump on Tuesday nominated Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, who is known to have close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as his state secretary.
The nomination faces potential hurdles in Congress with members of Trump's own Republican Party threatening to vote no.
"I can't imagine I would vote for anybody that believes that we should not sanction Russia given the fact that they did in fact interfere in our election," Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senator of South Carolina, said Wednesday.
This is not the first time Trump took to twitter to vent his anger against the hacking investigation, which U.S. President Barack Obama ordered Friday to be concluded before he leaves office on Jan. 20.
"Unless you catch 'hackers' in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't his brought up before the election?" Trump said Monday.
"Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!" he said.
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