![\"Republican](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/9eb137d6-24ee-49c7-a098-1d2cc73a2f79.jpg\")
<\/a>Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at Winthrop University on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Rock Hill, S.C. (AP Photo\/Rainier Ehrhardt)<\/p><\/div>\n
NEWSMAX<\/p>\n
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he didn’t believe reports that intelligence agencies concluded Russia intervened in the presidential election on his behalf, according to an interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.”<\/p>\n
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Trump said in the interview, taped on Saturday. He blamed Democrats for putting out the media reports and said he did believe they came from the Central Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n
A senior U.S. intelligence official told Reuters on Friday that intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that not only did their Russian counterparts direct the hacking of Democratic Party organizations and leaders, but they did so to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n
Trump said foreign governments or other parties may have tried to influence the election through hacking, but it didn\u2019t affect the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the Electoral College,\u201d Trump told Wallace.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s margin in the Electoral College, 306 to 232, was smaller than that amassed by President Barack Obama in his 2008 and 2012 wins.<\/p>\n
Trump said the intelligence community is split on whether Russia or other governments were the sources behind leaked e-mails involving Hillary Clinton before the election, and that Democratic lawmakers were trying to use information from private CIA briefings to discredit his victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody really knows, and hacking is very interesting,\u201d Trump said in his first appearance on a Sunday talk show since the election. \u201cOnce they hack, if you don\u2019t catch them in the act you\u2019re not going to catch them. They have no idea if it\u2019s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. I mean, they have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Personally, it could be Russia. It — I don\u2019t really think it is, but who knows? I don\u2019t know either. They don\u2019t know and I don\u2019t know,” he added.<\/p>\n
Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming leader of Democrats in the Senate, urged Congress on Saturday to investigate \u201csimultaneously stunning and not surprising\u201d claims that Russian hacking was designed to boost Trump and damage Democratic candidate Clinton.<\/p>\n
Trump also said he\u2019s \u201cvery, very close\u201d to naming his secretary of state, and lauded Exxon Mobil\u2019s Rex Tillerson, who\u2019s emerged as the front-runner, as \u201cmuch more than a business executive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have someone in mind that I think will be really fabulous,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump called Tillerson, who has been Exxon\u2019s chief executive officer for a decade, \u201ca world-class player\u201d while stopping short of saying he would be offered the job. Exxon Mobil Corp. is \u201cunbelievably managed,\u201d Trump said, according to a transcript provided by the network.<\/p>\n
The president-elect praised others under consideration to be the top U.S. diplomat, including 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, yet seemed to be leaning toward the 64-year-old Texan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you ask me about Rex, I mean, he\u2019s a world-class player. There\u2019s no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company — not for himself, for the company.”<\/p>\n
Tillerson has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin that go back almost two decades. That connection could make him a useful bridge between the Russian leader and Trump, who has repeatedly said he\u2019d seek a more cooperative relationship with Moscow.<\/p>\n