The near daily bitter back-and-forth over whether Russia waged influence over the election has done exactly what President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump had hoped to avoid — a rift between the outgoing and incoming administrations, according to CNN.
Taken aback by Trump's dismissal of the CIA report that concluded Russia meddled, the White House, through press secretary Josh Earnest, is driving home its message that Trump obviously knew and was aware that the Russians were helping him win the election through hacking efforts, banging that drum Wednesday and Thursday.
Earnest went so far as to call it a fact.
For his part, Trump on Thursday called Earnest a "foolish guy" and earlier in the day took to Twitter to suggest that if the White House was so sure of Russian hacking then they would have come forward about it before — not after — Hillary Clinton's loss in the election.
Kellyanne Conway called Earnest's assertions "breathtaking," wondering if his boss, Obama, agrees.
David Axelrod told CNN said you could bank on it.
"A press secretary doesn't go out and make statements like that on an unauthorized basis," said Axelrod.
And Trump took to Twitter to issue one of the opening salvos of Friday:
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