Hayden to CNN: Russia Was Playing Head Games with U.S.

Donald Trump's victory last month is "not in question" — despite reports of Russian interference — but the president-elect remains the only "prominent American" who has not acknowledged that Moscow hacked the Democratic National Committee, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday.

"The president-elect is the only prominent American about whom I am aware who has not yet conceded that the Russians conducted a massive covert influence campaign against the United States," Hayden, the retired Air Force general who also directed the National Security Agency, told Jake Tapper on CNN.

"That is accepted throughout the intelligence community.

"The fact that the Russians did this has been the conclusion not just of the American intelligence community but of private-sector companies that have looked at the DNC computer system."

The Washington Post reported that the CIA had concluded privately that Moscow worked not only to undermine the 2016 election but to also help Trump win the White House.

"He is the president-elect," Hayden said of Trump. "His legitimacy is not in question."

However, the Kremlin being linked to the election proves that "the Russians were messing with our heads," he said. "I am not prepared to personally conclude that they were trying to pick a winner."

Trump's dismissal of reports of Russian meddling has sown great dismay among staffers at the nation's intelligence agencies, Hayden told Tapper.

"There is a great deal of disappointment and, frankly, disappointment trending towards anger to be so casually dismissed."

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