enormous damage to our national security. i would not be praising him under any circumstances. >> trump is also battling against a growing bipartisan consensus around the view that kremlin backed hackers were meddling in the election herself to gop leaders support trump's complaint that democrats are using the scandal to damage the president-elect. >> russia clearly tried meddle in our political system. no two ways about it. first of all, and i think this is what the president-elect is upset about. there are attempts on delegitimize this election. that's just bogus. he won fair and square. he won clearly and convincingly. >> democrats argue it is more about trump's grasp of reality. >> this is not healthy scepticism. this is very unhealthy avoidance of the facts because they don't institute president-elect's interests.