Ryan: Trump ‘won this election fair and square’

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) insisted Friday that President-elect Donald Trump’s White House win remains legitimate despite U.S. intelligence officials’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the election.

The GOP leader responded to a declassified joint report by three federal security agencies released Friday that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a widespread influence campaign aimed at helping Trump.

“Russia has a track record of working against our interests, and they clearly tried to meddle in our political system. I strongly condemn any outside interference in our elections, which we must work to prevent moving forward,” Ryan said in a statement.

{mosads}

“We must also be clear that there is no evidence that there was any interference in the voting or balloting process.

“We cannot allow partisans to exploit this report in an attempt to delegitimize the president-elect’s victory. Donald Trump won this election fair and square because he heard the voices of Americans who felt forgotten,” Ryan continued.

The report states that Russian actors did not compromise any “vote tallying” systems.

The president-elect and Ryan have long taken different tacks on Russian meddling in the election. 

Trump has voiced openness for warmer ties with Putin, while Ryan last summer called on Russia to “stay out” of U.S. politics.

“Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election,” a Ryan spokesman said last July.

Ryan last week also called the Obama administration’s sanctions against Russia for meddling in the election “overdue.”

“Russia does not share America’s interests,” Ryan said last month.  “In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world.”

The intelligence report released Friday stated that “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”

“We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” the report reads.

Russian officials “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him,” the report stated.

Trump maintained following a briefing with senior intelligence officials earlier Friday that cyberattacks by foreign nations had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.” 

“Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations, including the Democratic National Committee [DNC],” he said.

The report deals only with the influence campaign’s intentions, not its results.

Trump stopped short of calling Russia the perpetrator of last year’s DNC breach, however, or calling it an attempt at influencing the 2016 race.

Updated at 5:06 p.m.