Washington (CNN) Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back Tuesday on the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin meddled in the 2016 US election in an attempt to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Emerging from a closed-door briefing with House members on election security for the midterms, Nielsen told reporters she believed Russians tried to sow discord in the 2016 election, but she was "not aware" they tried to help Trump win.

"I don't believe that I have seen that conclusion ... that the specific intent was to help President Trump win," Nielsen said when asked if she had any reason to doubt the assessment that the Russians were trying to help Trump. "I'm not aware of that, but I do generally have no reason to doubt any intelligence assessment."

Asked later about her comments, Nielsen said that they have tried to manipulate "public confidence on both sides."

"I do believe that Russia did try and will continue to try to manipulate on a whole variety of issues," she added.

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