President-elect Donald Trump held a press conference in Manhattan Wednesday morning in which he addressed reports that Russia had potentially damaging information which it could use to blackmail him.

Trump called the reports "nonsense,"

"A thing like that should never have been written, should never been had, and should never have been released," he said, adding that the news organizations which first published the reports sought to delegitimize his election and his presidency.

“I read the information it’s all fake news it didn’t happen and it was gotten by opponents of ours, as you know because you reported it and so did many of the other people, it was a group of opponents that got together, sick people, and they put that crap together.” he said.

Trump said for the first time that he believed Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). "I think it was Russia," Trump said.

However, Trump said that the DNC was "open to be hacked," unlike the Republican National Committee, which he said properly protected its servers.

He dismissed claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred him to former Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. "If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset not a liability."

However, Trump said that if he does not know if he would get along with Putin once he takes office. "I hope I do. And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me?"

Trump added that he has no loans or debts with Russia.