Washington: United States’ President-elect Donald Trump took another jab on Tuesday at the intelligence community that will be under his command in just a few weeks, once again in a tweet.
Last week Donald Trump had said he would meet with high-level intel briefers this week to hear more about Russian hacking of the U.S. election.
Trump antagonized the intelligence community over the weekend, telling reporters gathered outside his New Year’s Eve party that hacking is a “very hard thing to prove” and that he knows “things that other people don’t know, and so [intelligence officials] cannot be sure of the situation.”
Trump added that he will reveal what he knows Tuesday or Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted, “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”
CIA Director John Brennan told PBS Newshour Tuesday that his report on Russian hacking was in the “final throws” and would be delivered to President Obama in days.
A senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the situation has been quoted by NBC News that the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI and the director of national intelligence were always scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday.
Another official had previously told NBC News that the briefing was scheduled for Wednesday, but that was apparently wrong.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the new top Democrat in the Senate, said on MSNBC Tuesday night that Trump was being “really dumb” in taking on the U.S. intelligence community.
“You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you,” he said on her show.
Meanwhile, Trump earlier Tuesday tweeted that he would be holding his first news conference in over five months. The last time Trump held a pre-scheduled open media availability was on July 27, 2016.