File photo taken on July 21, 2016 shows Donald Trump taking the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States. Former real estate tycoon Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States after a neck-and-neck race with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Republican leader in the U.S. Senate said on Sunday U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's hope to improve relations with Russia would be "dashed" quickly.
"My suspicion is these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in an interview with CBS.
"The Russians are clearly a big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election," he added.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted that "Only 'stupid' people, or fools" do not want a good relationship with Russia.
"When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!" he tweeted.
McConnell on Sunday played down Trump's intention to improve relations with Russia, arguing that former President George W. Bush also had the same hope at the outset of presidency.
"I don't think it is all that unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians," said McConnell.
The U.S. intelligence released a report on Friday, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering "an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election" in order to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process."
Trump had repeatedly refused to accept the findings that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election. The Russian government has also denied the accusations.
