Top Senate Democrat blasts 'really dumb' Trump for challenging intel. community on Russia

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took aim at President-elect Donald Trump late Tuesday for being "really dumb" by challenging the intelligence community and their assessment on Russia's hacking activity in the 2016 presidential election.

"Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you," Schumer said on MSNBC.

"So even for a practical supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this," he added.

Schumer went on to explain that intelligence officials he knows are "very upset" with how Trump has treated them and talked about them since being elected president.

Trump has routinely expressed doubt over the intelligence community's assessment that Russia was in all likelihood involved in a hacking conspiracy aimed at interfering with and manipulating the outcome of the election. This led Trump to claim over the weekend that there were details he knew about the situation that most others did not and he would share them at a later date following a meeting with the intel community.

That meeting, which was supposed to take place mid-week according to Trump, has since been delayed until Friday, Trump announced on Tuesday while taking a veiled shot at the intelligence community.

"The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!," Trump wrote on Twitter.

However, intelligence sources told NBC News that Trump's meeting with them was never delayed and that it had always been scheduled for Friday.

In addition, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on CNN Monday that Trump may not have any new details to share following the meeting after all. Spicer said that if Trump does disclose any of the information, it will only be from the intelligence community's final report, saying that it would be "unbelievably irresponsible" to act before then.

Still, if Trump does decide to disclose any information, it is not yet known when he will do that. The president-elect does have a news conference scheduled for next Wednesday, so questions about his intelligence briefing will likely be asked and possibly even answered.

"He's being really dumb to do this." -Senator Schumer on Trump taunting US intelligence agencies https://t.co/QbGSmx9Xvp

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 4, 2017