A report from the intelligence community indicating Russia was behind election-year hacking activities in 2016 was a "how-to manual" to help the Democratic National Committee improve its online security, incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.
"There is an intelligence report due out later this weekend," Spicer, who appeared on several morning talk shows Monday, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "Once that report is made final and the president-elect is briefed, we will have a better idea what to make of this."
However, Spicer said he didn't "mean to be disrespectful, because hacking is wrong," but the report already out indicates the DNC was a "victim of spearfishing" and its "passwords need to be updated on a regular basis."
The mainstream media, he continued, is construing that Russia had an influence in the election, but there is "zero evidence" that happened.
Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump said he'd be releasing new information on hacking activities, and Spicer said Monday Trump is pointing out "there doesn't seem to be conclusive evidence in the intelligence community" over who was involved.
Spicer, also appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," told the show's panel there are two issues involved: whether there was a "discernible impact on the election," and the already issued report that breaks down security lapses that led to the DNC's servers to be hacked.
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On CNN's "New Day" program, Spicer told co-host Alisyn Camerota that Trump is being briefed by his national security team on a daily basis and receives information most other people don't.
"This report is not final," said Spicer. "The idea that we're jumping to conclusions before we have a final report is frankly irresponsible."
Spicer on CNN and on NBC's "Today" show questioned the White House's motivation for pushing for sanctions against Russia over the allegations.
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"Look what happened in April 2015, the Chinese stole million of records on U.S. current and former employees," Spicer told CNN. "Nothing happened with the White House, not a single statement. Now you have an instant where there was a political activity going on, and the question is, is the response of this administration, the sanctions they put on, proportional with the activities that have happened."
Camerota, though, pointed out that the White House did respond to the Chinese hacking reports, reading from a September 2015 statement in which President Barack Obama warned that the activities would "put significant strains on the bilateral relationships if not resolved."
"He did answer that," Spicer conceded. "The activity occurred in April 2015. Six months later he made comments about it."
In the current case, he continued, Obama told Russian President Vladimir Putin in September to 'knock it off,' but didn't take action until just last month.
"Was it because of a political reason, that they thought Hillary Clinton was going to win?" Spicer said. "It's only until Donald Trump won that they seemed to want to react to Russia."
Trump wants to wait until all information is available on the investigation, Spicer said.
"I know it's frustrating for you that we're doing it in a logical way," he told Camerota. "We're going to get all the information, get briefed properly and make a decision. We're not going to put the cart before the horse."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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