Pence: 'Intelligence failures' why Trump doubts Russian hacking

Mike Pence said Wednesday that “intelligence failures of recent years” are the reason Donald Trump has cast doubt on the intelligence community’s conclusions about Russian hacking to interfere with the presidential election.

“I think that the president-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy American skepticism about intelligence conclusions,” the vice president-elect said at a news conference alongside House Republican leaders at the Capitol.


Trump earlier in the day pointed to remarks from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claiming that Russia was not the source of the email dump intended to harm Democrats. Asked whether he agreed with Trump or with Speaker Paul Ryan — who called Assange a “sycophant” for Russia — Pence sidestepped the question.

“The president-elect and I will receive a briefing from the leadership of our intelligence agencies this coming Friday,” Pence said.