On Thursday, Donald Trump responded to the criticism following his inclusion of Julian Assange's quote in a tweet.
Donald Trump’s Wednesday tweet containing a quote from Julian Assange’s recent interview with Fox News prompted strong criticism.
Trump wrote, "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!"
Thursday morning, Trump responded to the backlash with a tweet, “The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against ‘Intelligence’ when in fact I am a big fan!”
While many media outlets did comment on his Wednesday tweet citing Assange, strong criticism came from within his own party as well.
In an interview with CNN, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, described the Twitter messages as, “very disturbing.”
He also said, “I hope the president-elect will get his information and trust the American patriots who work in the intelligence community who swear oaths of allegiance to the Constitution and not some guy hiding from the law who has a record of undercutting and undermining American democracy.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan expressed a similar sentiment, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt, “I think he [Trump] has not received his Russia briefing yet. I believe that’s scheduled for Friday. So, hopefully, he’ll get up to speed on what has been happening and what Russia has or has not done, and he’ll be better informed on that.”
