President-elect Donald Trump took a shot at the Democratic National Committee Wednesday, calling it "so careless" over the hacking that led to release of scores of embarrassing emails during last year's presidential election.
Assange told Sean Hannity of Fox News Tuesday night that Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, replied to a phishing email and revealed that his password was "password," taboo on many fronts for even the most novice of digital users.
Less than an hour later Wednesday, Trump chimed in on Assange's characterization in the same interview of U.S. media as dishonest.
Then the president-elect went on to chide the DNC for not playing cyber-defense as well as the Republicans.
The missives come a day after Trump claimed his briefing by U.S. officials on evidence that the Russian government was the attack was delayed until the end of the week, and that U.S. officials may need more time to bolster their conclusions.
A U.S. official, who has knowledge of the matter and asked for anonymity, said that Trump is to be briefed on an intelligence summary on foreign interference with the presidential election in the next few days. The briefing hadn’t been scheduled for Tuesday, the official said. Trump said Dec. 31 that he planned to release more information about the Russia hacking on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism at the conclusion of intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the hacking and release of e-mails in an effort to damage his campaign opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. He has pledged to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government has denied it was behind the hacking, and praised the Russian leader last week for not retaliating after the Obama administration penalized Russian officials.
"I just want them to be sure, because it's a pretty serious charge," Trump told reporters on Saturday as he arrived at a New Year's Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
"When you look at the weapons of mass destruction -- that was a disaster and they were wrong, and so I want them to be sure. I think it’s unfair if they don’t know. I know a lot about hacking, and hacking is a very hard thing to prove. It could be somebody else."
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
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