Donald Trump tweets CIA report on Russian election interference is "conspiracy theory"

Impact

After a weekend of relative social media silence, President-elect Donald Trump kicked off Monday morning with a tweetstorm, this time suggesting the CIA's report that Russia meddled in the United States presidential election to help him get elected amounts to little more than sour grapes. 

"Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!" Trump tweeted Monday morning.

Last week, reports surfaced that the CIA believes Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and released emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman to WikiLeaks in an effort to help Trump win. 

In an even more bizarre tweet, Trump questioned why the Russian interference wasn't brought up before the election.

Not only was the matter of Russia's hand in American politics discussed before the election, Trump himself was briefed on it

In early October, the Obama administration said publicly that Russia hacked the DNC in order to influence the election. And in a security briefing, Trump was told Russia was behind the hacks.

But Trump has questioned those facts, and instead chosen to wage war against the U.S. intelligence community, which he will soon lead. 

And John Bolton, who Trump is reportedly considering as deputy secretary of state, also suggested that Russian hacks of the DNC were a "false flag" carried out by the Obama administration — suggesting that Trump and his inner circle won't soon accept the CIA's findings.

The CIA's report is gaining the attention of a bipartisan group of Senators who are calling for a full investigation about Russia's potential meddling in the election.

"This cannot become a partisan issue," Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed said in a statement on Sunday. "The stakes are too high for our country. We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security."