Outspoken President-elect Donald Trump has once again come under fire for his comments, the latest of which compared US spy agencies tactics to those used in Nazi Germany.
Trump told a news conference in New York that leaks from the intelligence community led to some US media reporting false claims that he was caught in a compromising position in Russia.
“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. I think it’s a disgrace, and I say that … that’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” said Trump on Wednesday.
James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, said he spoke with the President-elect on Wednesday and told him he did not believe the media leaks came from the intelligence community.
“I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security,” said Clapper in a statement.
“Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.” he added.
BuzzFeed was the only major media organisation that published all 35 pages of the report that intelligence officials shared with Trump.
“In this case, the document was in wide circulation at the highest levels of American government and media,” said Ben Smith, editor in chief of the site.
“Publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017.”
The President-elect’s comparisons to Nazi Germany have not been received lightly, with a number of Jewish organisations demanding an apology.
Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect called Trump’s comments “a despicable insult to Holocaust survivors around the world”
“The President-elect has denigrated our nation and its commitment to freedom on the eve of his inauguration. He must retract his tweet and apologise to survivors and to our entire nation.”