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 also said that Democrats were "putting [] out" the story of Russian interference "because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics.

On December 18, 2016, Podesta told the press that the election was "distorted by the Russian intervention" and questioned whether Trump Campaign officials had been "in touch with the Russians." The same day, incoming Chief of Staff Reince Pricbus appeared on Fox News Sunday and declined to say whether the President-Elect accepted the intelligence community's determination that Russia intervened in the election. When asked about any contact or coordination between the Campaign and Russia, Priebus said, "Even this question is insane. Of course we didn't interface with the Russians." Priebus added that "this whole thing is a spin job" and said, "the real question is, why the Democrats ... are doing everything they can to delegitimize the outcome of the election?"

On December 29, 2016, the Obama Administration announced that in response to Russian cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election, it was imposing sanctions and other measures on several Russian individuals and entities. When first asked about the sanctions, President-Elect Trump said, "I think we ought to get on with our lives. He then put out a statement that said "It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things," but indicated that he would meet with intelligence community leaders the following week for a briefing on Russian interference. The briefing occurred on January 6, 2017. Following the briefing, the intelligence community released the public version of its assessment, which concluded with high confidence that Russia had intervened in the election through a variety of means with the goal of harming Clinton's