President Donald Trump went on a tirade this week against the intelligence community, who he believes leaked information — including intercepted phone calls and phone records — connecting his aides to Russia.
He promised on Wednesday to catch those responsible for "illegally" leaking classified information, while also accusing the media of fabricating its sources.
However, throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly spoke highly of leaks, praised the FBI for investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails, and on at least one occasion directly called on Russia to recover 30,000 missing emails.
Here are some of the things Trump said about leaks while he was on the campaign trail.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
“I love WikiLeaks!”
“These WikiLeaks emails confirm what those of us here today have known all along: Hillary Clinton is the vessel, a corrupt global establishment that’s raiding our country and surrendering the sovereignty of our nation ... WikiLeaks also shows something I’ve been warning everybody about for a long time. The media is simply an extension of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”
“I gave a speech earlier today on the lies, corruption, and false accusations of the crooked Hillary Clinton campaign and the mainstream media, which they control and use quite viciously. They want to distract us from WikiLeaks. It's been amazing what's coming out on WikiLeaks.”
Said at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Oct. 13, 2016.