U.S. President Donald Trump in his first comments about a widespread data breach across the U.S. government downplayed the seriousness and impact of the cyber espionage campaign, and questioned whether Russia was to blame.
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality," Trump\said on Twitter on Saturday. "Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)."
Trump's assertion that China may be behind the hacking spree, which has so far affected more than a half dozen federal agencies including the Commerce and Treasury Departments, runs counter to comments by his own Secretary of State and multiple lawmakers briefed on the matter.
"We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday in an interview.