Donald Trump's presidential campaign "didn't need WikiLeaks" to convince voters they didn't like or trust Hillary Clinton, the president-elect's former campaign manager said Sunday.
In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," Conway, who's now serving as a Trump adviser, insisted the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta – hacks that were directed by Russia, according to U.S. intelligence agencies – didn't effect the outcome of the election.
"We didn't need WikiLeaks to convince the American people they didn't like [Hillary Clinton], didn't trust her or find her to be honest," Conway said. "She did that all on her own."
"She got this party started by setting up an illegal server, and opening it to hacks for intelligence and security information that's much more serious than what a political party would have on the server."
Conway also defended Trump's response to the intel report released Friday – even as she criticized the U.S. response to China hacks.
"I keep hearing particularly from my friends at CNN and other places that we're so reluctant" to accept that Russia directed the hack attacks, she said, declaring Trump "knows that … Russia, China and others have tried to attack our governmental institutions, and business organization and individuals."
"Where was the outcry when China hacked into 21 million records through our Office of Personnel and Management … of private citizens, their personal information?" she asked, adding: "Everything changed when the election result was not what they had anticipated."
Pressed on Trump's repeated mention of the WikiLeaks revelations during his presidential campaign, Conway said the leaks were "quite embarrassing – to watch her closest advisers question her judgment and question whether she would ever find her voice and wondering aloud why she was testing 48 slogans to find out who she was…"
But, she said, Clinton"was viewed by a majority of Americans as unlikable and a higher number… [as] dishonest or trustworthy" and that "had nothing to do with Moscow."
The bottom line, Conway said, Russia was "alleged to interfere with our democracy… They didn't succeed."
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