10 Years of Julian Assange 01-06-17

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Kristol Slams Trump's Public Doubt of U.S. Intel on Russia, Siding with Assange: 'Foolish, Irresponsible'10:30 AM, JAN 05, 2017 | By TWS STAFF

Editor at large Bill Kristol warned Trump supporters against justifying President-elect Donald Trump's doubts about intelligence assessments affirming Kremlin attempts to sway the results of the 2016 election. Trump has reaffirmed those doubts in recent days by siding with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who released tranches of the Democrats' hacked emails on his website, and denied that the source of those emails was the Russian government.

"It is unbelievably foolish and irresponsible for a president-elect of the United States to cast doubt on the intelligence community. He wants to go in and privately take a look and shake it up? Fine," Kristol said on CNN. "What signal he is sending to the world when he says, 'I have no confidence in U.S. intelligence'? Is that an appropriate thing for someone who is about to become president to say publicly?"

"And then to praise Julian Assange, who correctly has been attacked not just by conservatives, but by the Obama administration, as an, and is himself, anti-American," Kristol continued. "It's terrible that some people, I think, they have become Trump apologists and they have forgotten about the country's wellbeing.

Kristol said that members of Trump's cabinet might also disagree with the president-elect on Assange.

"What happens at the confirmation hearings of Mike Pompeo for the CIA and for Jim Mattis at Defense?" he said. "These are serious people. Pompeo was on the intelligence committee, Jim Mattis commander of CENTCOM. I bet they know a lot about Julian Assange and have strong feelings about him. And they're not what Donald Trump is saying."
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