President-elect Donald Trump continued late Sunday and Monday to attack suggestions by the U.S. government—and the media who were reporting the story—that Russian hacks were meant to boost his election chances.
The Obama Administration has called for an investigation of the Russian email hacks and leaks of Hillary Clinton's campaign and their impact on the election.
"Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!," Trump tweeted, followed by: "Unless you catch 'hackers' in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?"
That followed a Sunday night tweet slamming both NBC and CNN: "Just watched @NBCNightlyNews - So biased, inaccurate and bad, point after point. Just can't get much worse, although @CNN is right up there!"
The Committee to Protect Journalists came out strongly against Trump before the election, pointing to his attacks on the media and saying he was a threat to a free press.
Trump tweeted Saturday that CNN was reporting "fake news" in its report on the story, which was widely reported, that he would be retaining a producer credit on The New Celebrity Apprentice. "Reports by @CNN that I will be working on The Apprentice during my Presidency, even part time, are ridiculous & untrue - FAKE NEWS!"
The President-elect has shown no inclination to back off his preferred method of public statement: the reactive tweet.
The head of CNN owner Time Warner, and potential future owner AT&T, told Congress last week that such threats would not change CNN's news coverage as the companies try to get their proposed merger through a Trump Justice Department or FCC and in the wake of Trump threats to block the deal.
