Monday on Good Morning America, ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jon Karl and anchor George Stephanopoulos discussed whether or not President-elect Trump would “accept” the intelligence report concluding Russia hacked the election. While Trump has said that he wanted more evidence that hacking actually happened, the media has pushed the story even further, openly suggesting that the hacking changed the results of the election. On Monday’s show, the two journalists discussed how Trump would react when he did eventually accept the intelligence report.
Stephanopoulos began by bringing up Reince Priebus’s promise that Trump would accept the report once he was presented with “convincing” evidence. Karl expressed doubt that this would happen or result in any action against Russia.
KARL: [W]e'll see if that actually happens. This is something that's been pretty fundamental. From the start, Trump has dismissed this possibility. George, if he accepts it, it raises a very interesting question for President-elect Trump. What does he do about it? Will there be retaliation taken against the Russians?
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's what I wanted to follow up on because we heard from President Obama on Friday at the end of his year press conference saying there will be retaliation once the final report comes in. But Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s President-elect Senior Advisor saying yesterday he won't necessarily follow through on that.
Then Karl went beyond the facts, openly insinuating that the Russian hacking changed the outcome of the election. Karl scoffed at the idea that Trump would “retaliate” against Russia because they “helped him get elected President.”
KARL: That’s right. It's hard to imagine President-elect Trump who has talked about a new start with Russia,who has talked about dealing with Russia warmer ties with Russia, starting, as one of his first acts of President, retaliating against the Russians for something that arguably helped him get elected President.
