Priebus says he thinks Trump ‘accepts’ intelligence community’s findings

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he thinks President-elect Donald Trump accepts the findings of the intelligence community on Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race.

“I think he accepts the findings,” Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“But here’s the thing that I think everyone needs to understand — when this whole thing started, it started from the Russians 50 years ago … This is something that’s been going on in our elections for many, many years.”

Priebus said it “happens every election period.”

{mosads}”In this particular case, it started way back in 2015 before either nominee of either party was chosen,” Priebus said.

“And it started … as a spearfishing expedition over many different institutions.”

Priebus blasted the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for its lack of IT defenses. The DNC was warned multiple times by the FBI before being hacked, Priebus added, and officials didn’t respond.

“So yes, we have bad actors around the world,” Priebus said.

“But we also have a problem when we have a major political institution that allows foreign governments into their system with hardly any defenses or training.”

Still, Priebus emphasized Trump is not denying entities in Russia were behind this particular hacking campaign.