During a White House briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer elicited an incredulous response from reporters when he told them he and President Trump haven’t talked about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“I have not sat down and talked to him about that specific thing,” Spicer said. “Obviously we’ve been dealing with a lot of other issues today. I’d be glad to touch base.”
Spicer wouldn’t even confirm if Trump accepts overwhelming evidence — including the US intelligence community’s joint assessment, the sworn testimony of a number of current and former intelligence officials, and recent news reports based on a leaked National Security Agency document — that Russia used cyberattacks and other methods to interfere in the election on his behalf.
Within 24 hours of Spicer’s briefing, testimony in the House and Senate highlighted the absurdity of the White House line.
In the House, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told members there is no doubt about Russian interference.
“In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election — plain and simple. Now, the key question for the president and Congress is: What are we going to do to protect the American people and their democracy from this kind of thing in the future?” he said.
Ex-DHS Sec.: Russians, at the direction of Putin himself, cyberattacked the US to influence 2016 election. “That is a fact. Plain & simple.” pic.twitter.com/ZayDreTnT3
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 21, 2017
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Dr. Sam Liles, acting director of the Cyber Division of DHS, told members that her department has evidence Russian hackers targeted election-related computer systems in 21 states.
FLAG: DHS on Russian interference: "We have evidence of 21 states, election-related systems in 21 states, that were targeted." pic.twitter.com/CKuDrsazSh
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 21, 2017
These aren’t necessarily shocking revelations. As Johnson detailed in his written testimony, DHS tried to sound the alarm about Russian hacking of state election systems as far back as last August, the month before the FBI launched its investigation into the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia.
A month later, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper publicly suggested for the first time that recent computer attacks carried out against the Democratic Party were perpetrated by Russians,” as the Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Clapper said earlier this month that the Trump-Russia scandal, in his estimation, makes Watergate pale in comparison.
Russian interference in the 2016 election isn’t the first inconvenient fact the White House has refused to accept. Other examples include Trump’s rejection of mainstream climate science; his stubborn, evidence-free claims about voter fraud costing him the popular vote and President Obama wiretapping him; and his fear-mongering about rising crime rates that aren’t shown in crime data. Trump began his presidency by having Spicer insist, against all evidence, that the crowd attending his inauguration was the largest of all time.
During his testimony, Johnson raised the question of how federal and state officials will try to prevent meddling by in the future. They certainly can’t expect much help from Trump, who has repeatedly insisted on Twitter that the “phony Russia story” is “fake news.”
UPDATE (6/22, 9:30 a.m.): In a tweet posted Thursday morning, Trump framed Johnson’s testimony as somehow representing a vindication for him:
Former Homeland Security Advisor Jeh Johnson is latest top intelligence official to state there was no grand scheme between Trump & Russia.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
During his testimony Wednesday, Johnson said he hasn’t seen any evidence of collusion beyond what’s available to the public, but emphasized that he’s been a private citizen for five months. Politico cybersecurity reporter Eric Geller noted that even before Johnson left DHS, he wouldn’t have been privvy to that sort of evidence.
Trump followed up with another tweet framing Russian interference as something that merely might have happened, which suggests he’s still not convinced.
By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
Top Obama administration officials have said they didn’t go public with evidence of Russia’s efforts to meddle on behalf of Trump before the election because they didn’t want to be seen as trying to swing the result for Hillary Clinton.
In subsequent tweets, Trump made clear that he still believes the Russian interference story is a “big Dem HOAX!” and “a big DEM scam.”
…Why did Democratic National Committee turn down the DHS offer to protect against hacks (long prior to election). It's all a big Dem HOAX!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
…Why did the DNC REFUSE to turn over its Server to the FBI, and still hasn't? It's all a big Dem scam and excuse for losing the election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017