Today, in his first press conference since the election, Donald Trump has been very defensive but has provided zero details to refute the explosive reports yesterday that Russia possesses confidential and sensitive personal material about the President-elect that they have withheld as leverage. Some have argued that this explains Donald Trump’s silence and disturbing support for Vladimir Putin, who has long been recognized as a major foreign adversary.
There was also inexplicable failure to specifically denounce the Russian hack of the DNC and DCCC by House Republicans this summer. As was previously reported during the summer of 2016 and further exposed by the New York Times in December, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Paul Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) knowingly used Russian hacked materials in paid campaign advertisements. Yet Speaker Paul Ryan, former NRCC Chairman Greg Walden and nearly all other House Republicans failed to denounce the Russian hacks and theft of sensitive materials from the DCCC, that were ultimately made public.
“In light of the explosive intelligence report detailing Donald Trump’s close ties to Russia, everyone should be reminded of the House Republicans’ unpatriotic and unprecedented decision to largely ignore the Russian hack of the DCCC and DNC. What’s more, the Republican campaign committees used hacked materials stolen by Russia in their campaign advertisements,” said DCCC Spokesman Tyler Law. “Now that Republicans actually have a responsibility to govern, we hope that they will realize it’s time to finally put country before party.”