Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Monday during an appearance on Fox News' "Special Report" that Democrats are using Russian cyber attacks as their latest excuse to explain Hillary Clinton's election loss to Donald Trump last month.
The CIA told lawmakers last week that Russia intervened in the presidential election to help get Trump elected to the White House, a conclusion the president-elect adamantly rejects. Many Democrats have used the story to try to delegitimize Trump's victory after the U.S. intelligence community said in October that Moscow was behind a series of hacks into American political networks.
Fox News host Bret Baier first played a clip of incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus rejecting the idea that Russia was responsible for Trump's win, telling ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that Clinton was defeated because she could not run a successful campaign.
"The Russians didn't tell Hillary Clinton to ignore Wisconsin and Michigan, okay," Priebus said. "She lost the election because her ideas were bad. She didn't fit the electorate; she ignored states that she shouldn't have."
Continetti agreed with Priebus and explained the difference between the consensus view among the intelligence agencies that the Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential campaign and the CIA's apparent disputed claim that Moscow interfered with the election results to actually help Trump.
Continetti then said there were so many other reasons why Trump was elected and began to list the numerous reasons Democrats have given for why Hillary Clinton lost that cast blame on others.
"Think about how the Democrats have been in denial," Continetti said. "First, it was [FBI Director] Jim Comey handed the election to Donald Trump. Then, it was fake news gave the election to Donald Trump. Then, it was the Electoral College gave the election to Donald Trump."
"And now," Continetti continued, "it's, well, the Russian hackers gave the election to Donald Trump. It's not going to hold water."