Page 46 - June 23, 2017

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, June 23, 2017 ~ Vol. 24 - No. 344 ~ 46 of 54
“Those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense?”
But much of Trump’s attention was on the suburbs of Atlanta, in the 6th Congressional District race. Democrats had lavished attention and money on Tuesday’s special election, hoping for a victory that
would underscore Republican worries about Trump and serve as a harbinger of a Democratic wave in 2018. Instead, Handel’s victory, in a traditional Republican stronghold that rarely produces a competitive con-
test, was met with a sigh of relief among the GOP.
Trump tweeted several times during the night and capped the night off with a text message to support-
ers referring to his “Make America Great Again” slogan:
“The MAGA Mandate is stronger than ever. BIG LEAGUE.”
___
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report. ___
Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
Trump publicly doubting that Russia meddled in election By VIVIAN SALAMA, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the assessment of 17 U.S. intelligence agencies that blame Russia for election meddling, questioning Thursday why the Obama ad- ministration didn’t try to stop it.
“By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin.,” the president tweeted. “Why didn’t they stop them?”
All 17 intelligence agencies have agreed Russia was behind the hack of Democratic email systems and tried to in uence the 2016 election to bene t Trump. The ndings are at the heart of an investigation into contacts that members of Trump’s campaign team may have had with Russian of cials during the campaign and the transition.
Trump, frequently lashes out at the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” spearheaded by Democrats.
He tweeted Thursday that the Democratic National Committee turned down an offer from the Depart- ment of Homeland Security “to protect against hacks (long prior to election). It’s all a big Dem HOAX!”
“...Why did the DNC REFUSE to turn over its Server to the FBI, and still hasn’t? It’s all a big Dem scam and excuse for losing the election!” he wrote.
A day earlier, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told the House intelligence committee that in the late summer and into the fall, he was very concerned about the meddling in state election systems and that the department encouraged states to seek assistance from DHS. He said he was frustrated DHS learned of the hack into the DNC late in the game and that the committee refused help because it was using a private cyber security rm.
“In retrospect, it would be easy for me to say that I should have bought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in late summer,” Johnson said.
Johnson also addressed the Obama administration’s political sensitivity when it came to warning of the Russian meddling, and alluded to problems created at the time by Trump’s own statements.
“One of the candidates, as you’ll recall, was predicting that the election was going to be rigged in some way. And so we were concerned that, by making the statement, we might in and of itself be challenging the integrity of the — of the election process itself,” Johnson said.
Last month, Trump red FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russia probe. The president has come under harsh criticism by some who claim he threatened to undermine the investiga- tion by ring Comey.
Special counsel Robert Mueller was later named to lead the investigation, and The Washington Post reported that Mueller is considering investigating Trump for obstruction of justice because he red Comey. The investigation has shadowed Trump from the outset, though he’s denied any ties to Russia or knowl-
edge of any campaign coordination with Moscow.