CIA Director Mike Pompeo took a swipe at Wikileaks on Thursday, saying he doesn't "love" the anti-secrecy organization.

Pompeo argued during an interview with conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens at the Aspen Institute’s Security Forum that Wikileaks is intent on harming America.

"WikiLeaks will take down America any way they can," he said.

"I don't love WikiLeaks."

Pompeo was also asked about whether he believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

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"Of course they did," he said. "And the one before that. And the one before that."

The CIA chief has previously come out strongly against WikiLeaks, calling them a “nonstate hostile intelligence service" in an April speech, his first public speech since joining President Trump’s administration.

"It's time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A nonstate hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” he said.

But both Trump and Pompeo praised WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, with Trump once declaring on the campaign trail, “I love WikiLeaks.”



Pompeo, a former Republican representative from Kansas, also once used his congressional Twitter account to tweet a link to WikiLeaks’ posting of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. CNN found several other instances in which Pompeo cited WikiLeaks to attack then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Democratic super PAC to hit Trump in battleground states over coronavirus deaths Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight MORE.