Secretary of State John Kerry decried President-elect Donald Trump's continued criticism of the U.S. intelligence community, saying it's "damaging."
"It's going to be really important for the incoming president to repair this relationship, to create a relationship. It is vital for the president to be able to work effectively with the Intel community," Kerry told Andrea Mitchell on NBC News in one of his final interviews as secretary. The intelligence community's assessment that Russia was behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee during the election has created a rift between them and Trump.
Trump attended an intelligence briefing on the hacks on Friday, which he called "constructive."
"I have tremendous respect for the work and service done by the men and women of this community to our great nation," Trump said afterwards in a statement, according to CNN.
"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, including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines," he said.
"I mean these are men and women who dedicate their lives and work unbelievably hard, many of them under very difficult circumstances to try to keep America safe and to provide information to decision-makers so that we can make the right decisions and make them on the basis of as much input as possible," he added.
When asked why he didn't follow Vice President Joe Biden's lead in telling Trump to "grow up," Kerry replied, "I'm not going to get into the back and forth on the president-elect right now. I intend to do that with the same discipline that I've tried to exercise throughout my term."
According to Kerry, President Barack Obama has "made it very, very clear" to Russian President Vladimir Putin "how totally unacceptable and dangerous this kind of behavior is."
"Now, how we go forward is going to be determined to some degree by choices that the new administration makes," Kerry continued. "And obviously, it is going to be important that the president of the United States, going forward, has a clear understanding of the degree to which Russia is engaged in this activity and the threat it poses."