US president-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for not quickly hitting back at Washington for the punitive measures imposed over alleged interference in the US election in November, last year.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!” Trump said on Twitter.
Russia’s embassy in Washington quickly retweeted the comment, which Trump pinned so it would appear at the top of his feed for several hours.
Trump’s tweet enraged his Democratic foes as well as some members of his own Republican Party.
“@realDonaldTrump alternates between embracing Russian subversion & downplaying it, but his support for Putin is constant. We must know why,” tweeted Evan McMullin, who ran as an independent US presidential candidate after serving as policy director for the House Republican Conference.
Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote on Twitter: “Our ENTIRE cyber intel community, best in world btw, agrees that this guy tried to mess in our election & the Russians are RT TrumpPutin love.”
Earlier, the Russian leader ruled out any immediate tit-for-tat expulsions of US officials in the row over what Washington says were “efforts to harm US interests” in connection with the Nov. 8 election won by the Republican.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had recommended to Putin that he eject 35 US officials to counterbalance US President Barack Obama’s move on Thursday to expel 35 Russian intelligence operatives and shut down two Russian compounds in the US.
Trump, who succeeds Obama on Jan. 20, has repeatedly praised Putin and made a number of Cabinet picks with ties to Russia.
The FBI and CIA have concluded that Russian intelligence agencies oversaw the hacking and leaking of e-mails from Democratic Party organizations under Kremlin orders this year in order to benefit Trump’s campaign against failed Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the past, the president-elect has ridiculed US intelligence about Russia’s cybermeddling, saying it was not clear who conducted the attacks.
He has long treated such accusations as a thinly veiled effort by a Democratic president to delegitimize a Republican victory.
Later on Friday, Trump went on to mock two US TV networks, apparently over their coverage of the US-Russia jousting, saying on Twiiter that: “Russians are playing @CNN and @NBCNEws for such fools — funny to watch, they don’t have a clue! @FoxNewstotally gets it!”
On Wednesday, he issued a call for the country to “move on to bigger and better things,” but said he would meet with US intelligence leaders next week to be “updated on the facts of this situation.”
While Trump has already received intelligence briefings about the election and substantial evidence is in the public sphere, his pledge to meet with intelligence chiefs could provide a face-saving opportunity to further soften his stance.
Also next week, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is to appear before lawmakers to testify about foreign cyberthreats to the US — a possible opportunity for him to expand on Russia’s activities.
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