Over the last year and half, President Donald Trump has done his best to push back against nearly all media reports that don't appear to favor himself or his political agenda. During the election, Trump was quick to show his support for Wikileaks, but that might no longer be the case.
Trump and Wikileaks
In the middle of the 2016 presidential election, the hacking group known as Wikileaks started to release information that was gathered from John Podesta's private email account. Podesta was the chair of the Hillary Clinton campaign, and the Wikileaks dump continued to raise questions about the Democratic nominee all the way until Election Day.
While noting credible was released that damaged Clinton, it was the slow drip of potential disaster that many believe hurt the former Secretary of State. As expected, Donald Trump praised Wikileaks, as he was able to use the information to build up his own campaign. However, Wikileaks released a new dump of information earlier this week that related to the CIA's alleged spying program. As reported by ABC News on March 8, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked about the latest revelation.
Press Sec.: "Massive difference" between CIA WikiLeaks leak and Podesta email leak lauded by Trump during election. https://t.co/rfvsUzcrgh pic.twitter.com/M0Nhu8eLms
— ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2017
After asking about the Wikileaks release in general, ABC News' Cecilia Vega pressed Sean Spicer on Donald Trump's previous praise of the organization.
"When it came to the campaign and Hillary Clinton, the president said 'I love Wikileaks,'" Vega said, before asking, "Does he still feel that way today?"
FBI and CIA to look into how Wikileaks got classified docs https://t.co/wTQ7n0QhNx pic.twitter.com/x0lBYvoxBu
— The Hill (@thehill) March 8, 2017
"There's a big difference between disclosing John Podesta’s G-Mail account about a back and forth and his undermining of Hillary Clinton, and his thoughts on her on a personal nature and the leaking of classified information," Sean Spicer pointed out.
Not stopping there, Spicer doubled down and said that there was a "massive difference" between the two. Spicer also went on to hit at Democrats who were "outraged" when Wikileaks released information about Clinton, but not about the CIA's spying program.
Moving forward
As of press time, it's unknown if, or how much, additional information Wikileaks has at their disposal, and Donald Trump has yet to offer a comment on the situation. With just under two months in the White House, Trump has made drastic changes that has appeared to only further the political gap between the American people.
