President Trump on Saturday called out Obama administration officials for not taking stronger actions against Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, contradicting his past statements and suggesting without proof that they were trying tohelpDemocratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Histweets came after The Post revealed Friday that the Obama White House had received reports as early asAugust 2016 regardingRussian President Vladimir Putins direct involvement in thecyber campaignwith instructions to defeat or damage Clinton and help to elect Trump, according to sourcing deep inside the Russian government.
The Washington Post's national security reporters unveil the deep divisions inside the Obama White House over how to respond to Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. (Whitney Leaming,Osman Malik/The Washington Post)
The Obama administration would not publicly say Russia was attempting to interfere with the election until Oct. 7, and the news ofPutins attempts to aid Trump would not surface until after the election.
Trump has long disputed that the Russians interfered with the election, calling itall a big Dem HOAX just this week.
But on Friday evening, after the publication of The Posts article, Trump demanded to know why Obama hadnt done more to stop the meddling.
He followed up with more tweets on Saturday, attempting to put the focus on Obamas inaction.
The Posts article explains in detail why Obama, who reportedly was gravely concerned by an August CIA report about the hacking, managed to approve only largely symbolic sanctions before he left office.
Those reasons included partisan squabbling among members of Congress, initial skepticism by other intelligence agencies about the CIAs findings, and an assumption that Clinton would win the election and follow up.
We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures, a senior administration official said in the article.
Trump, however, raised his own theories.
He provided no explanation or evidence forwhy this wouldhave helped Clinton.
The Post article recounts how Obama learned about the Russian intrusions and the administrations attempts to find support to make the information public.
According to the article, less than a month after 20,000 stolen Democratic Party emails were leakedto the public, a CIA memo warned Obama that the hack had beenordered by Putin in an attempt to defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee.
Interviews with administration officials revealed that Obama directly confronted Putin over the allegations during a meeting of world leaders in China. He also ordered his deputies to safeguard the election and seekbipartisansupport from congressional leaders tocondemn Russias actions.
The administration encountered obstacles at every turn, writeGreg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous.
Complacency mayhave also undercut the administrations efforts to punish Russia. Like many polls suggested, it believed Clinton would win despite the hacks.
By his final weeks, aside from warnings and rhetoric, Obama had approved only narrowsanctions and a planto plant cyberweapons in Russias infrastructure if the next president so chose.
As one senior Obama official told The Post, I feel like we sort of choked, which Trump would quote in his tweet.
As he has with other newsmaking events, Trump used the article to argue that a months-long focus by the media, Congress and federal investigators on his campaigns alleged ties to Russia has beenmisdirected.
Focus on them, not T! he tweetedSaturday afternoon.
For some Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, the bombshell report affirmed what they said they had long suspected.
Nothing like the extensive hacking effort and manipulation effort could occur without involvement, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told CNN. Now we actually know: Yes, Putin directed it. He had a specific goal to defeat Hillary Clinton.
Some Republicans expressed concern about another country threatening democracy in the United States.
The reality is, in two or four years, it will serve Vladimir Putins interest to take down the Republican Party, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told CNN. If we werent upset about it, we have no right to complain in the future.
Excerpt from:
Trump lashes out at Obama over latest report on Russian election meddling - Washington Post