La Cross’s Kind concerned with Trump’s downplaying of Russian hacking, despite intelligence report

Trump statement directly contradicts declassified
report’s assessment of Russian impact on election.

La Crosse’s congressman says it would be a mistake to take Russia lightly.

Democrat Ron Kind says is very concerned with president-elect Donald Trump not taking seriously information from the nation’s intelligence agencies about the threat posed by Russia meddling in U.S. elections. 

“I’m hoping someone is getting to president-elect Trump, and trying to convince him that he needs to listen to these intelligence agencies, especially when they all develop a consensus on this issue, because it’s going to help him make better decisions,” Kind said. 

“(Intelligence agencies) whole job is to make sure that U.S. policy makers, starting with the president, (have) the facts they need in a complicated world to keep us safe.”

Trump was briefed Friday by top U.S. intelligence agencies on Russian hacking and whether the Kremlin’s campaign to discredit Hillary Clinton affected the outcome of the election.

After that briefing – and right before an unclassified version of that report was released to the public, Trump released a statement that read: “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations, including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”

The problem with Trump’ statement, however, as the declassified version points out, is that the report specifically states that it did not assess “the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election.”

The 25-page report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, specifically stated that it did not assess “the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election.”

“The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion,” the report read. “We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”

Kind says it’s clear Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to undermine elections in democracies everywhere.

“This is about our future elections,” Kind said. “This is about important elections coming up in Europe in the next year, and what type of response and signal that we’re going to be delivering Putin and Russia right now that this is intolerable.”

The report also concluded that Russia aimed to help Trump win the election.

“Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” it read. “Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.” 

The CIA and FBI agreed to have high confidence in this assessment, while the NSA had moderate confidence.