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Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman, John Podesta, went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a closed-door hearing with the House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Podesta said he was asked "to come forward to give, to the best of my knowledge, what I knew about [the election interference] and I was happy to cooperate with the committee." He declined to discuss specifics from the session.

Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and counselor to President Barack Obama, was caught up in the cyberattacks that took place at the end of the presidential campaign.

His emails were hacked and posted online last fall by WikiLeaks, revealing the inner workings of Clinton's campaign and political operation. The hack led to weeks of unflattering headlines for the campaign ahead of Election Day.

Asked about the Obama administration's response to the Russian efforts to influence the election, Podesta said the administration was "dealing with unprecedented weaponization of fruits of Russian cyberactivity."

"I think they were trying to make the best judgments they could on behalf of the American people," he said of the Obama team.

U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Russia of being behind the hack on Podesta and other hacking during the election.

Podesta's comments come as President Trump has increasingly criticized Obama's response to the Russian efforts to influence the election. After the Washington Post reported on the Obama administration's internal deliberations about how to respond evidence of Russia meddling, Trump said in a Fox News interview that Obama "did nothing" about Russia.

The Obama administration's response to the Russian meddling has come under some criticism. The administration repeatedly warned Russia against interfering in the election and made resources available to protect state election systems ahead of Election Day in 2016.

In December, after the election, Obama issued new sanctions against Russia and ejected alleged Russian operatives from the country.

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Clinton's former campaign chair defends Obama response to Russian hacking - ABC News

As news broke Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would delay a vote on the Senate GOP health care bill, Fox News touted a report on former President Barack Obamas lavish family vacations.

Lap of Luxury, read the lead headline on Fox News online site. Obamas Lavish Globetrotting Vacations Raise Democrats Eyebrows.

Fox News

About an hour after news broke on the fate of the health care bill which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates would result in 22 million fewer people with health insurance by 2026and 15 million fewer just in the next year Twitter users took notice of Fox News lead story vacation-shaming Obama, whos currently touring Bali with his family.

Fox News loosely sourced story cites twoleft-wing activists who say theyre troubled by Obamas vacations in the months since he left office.The two sources,Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Patrick Caddell and David Michael Smith of the Houston Socialist Movement, criticized Obama for leading the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

The story claims that the left-wing media and comedian John Oliver whose sarcastic sense of humor Fox News appears to be unfamiliar with are worried about Obamas luxury vacations. The report cites a February interviewOliver did with Late Night host Seth Meyers in which Oliver jokingly begged Obama to tone it down with the kite-surfing pictures while the U.S. grappled with the new Trump administration.

Trump, if youre curious, has taken costly trips to his Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster resorts for eight of the 23 weekends hes been in office.

Obama spoke out Thursday against the Senates health care bill.

Simply put, if theres a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family this bill will do you harm, he said in a statement. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.

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As Health Care Bill Burns, Fox News Claims Outrage Over Obama Vacations - HuffPost

Dozens of residents were shut out of a community meeting Tuesday to discuss plans for the Obama Presidential Center, an expanded golf course and the rest of Jackson Park.

The meeting, at La Rabida Childrens Hospital, was combined with a regularly scheduled 5th Ward meeting where residents in the 5th and 7th wards hoped to discuss a controversial rezoning of the 71st Street corridor. It was the third in a series of community conversations about the future of Jackson Park.

Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, told a crowd gathered outside, many of whom arrived 15 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, that the room had reached its capacity of 75 participants.

"I am impressed with his turnout tonight. Its a Tuesday night, said Jamie Clare Flaherty, director of strategic initiatives for the Obama Foundation. In the early days there is a real opportunity for input. This is our mission in action. People literally beating down the door to get in. Thats awesome.

But Anne Holcomb, who left her job at a homeless shelter early to attend the meeting, did not have a chance to share her views. She and dozens of neighbors blocked the main entrance to La Rabida, even after Hairston assured them that more community meetings would be scheduled.

Referring to the Obama center to the north and the U.S. Steel property to the south, Holcomb said, South Shore is the meat in the redevelopment sandwich. She had hoped to address Hairstons proposal to convert a mile-long corridor of 71st Street from commercial to residential zoning. Instead, she lingered on the sidewalk with other residents.

Im very concerned about our lack of say as community members, Holcomb said.

mbrachear@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @TribSeeker

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Community meeting on Obama center, Jackson Park has to turn away residents - Chicago Tribune

Speaking on Fox News's "Fox & Friends," Newt Gingrich says that "Congress is about to have to call Barack Obama in to testify under oath about when he knew about Russia meddling." | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Congressional committees in both the House and Senate have an obligation to call in former President Barack Obama to testify as to what his administration knew regarding Russias campaign to interfere in last years presidential election and when it became aware of those efforts, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday morning.

Guess what's about to happen: The Congress is about to have to call Barack Obama in to testify under oath about when he knew about Russia meddling, Gingrich said on Fox Newss Fox & Friends. Who told him? Why did he do nothing? Who was in the meetings when he decided to do nothing? It's going to turn out, yes, there's a big Russian story. It's Barack Obama. Not Donald Trump. And you cannot make this stuff up.

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Obamas response to the Russian campaign of cyberattacks has come under increased scrutiny in recent days since the publication of a Washington Post report detailing how and when the former president became aware of the Kremlins efforts as well as what retaliatory steps were taken. Obama was first made aware of the Russian cyberattack campaign in August, according to the Post.

Denis McDonough, Obamas White House chief of staff, defended his former bosss handling of the attacks in an interview with the Post, but another, unnamed administration official said that the Obama administration had choked in dealing with Russias interference efforts.

President Donald Trump, consumed by controversy regarding the multiple ongoing Russia investigations, has sought to turn the tables on his political foes by working to shift attention away from probes into whether or not anyone associated with him colluded with the Kremlin and onto Obamas handling of the cyberattack. Trump has accused his predecessor of willfully doing nothing to stop the Russians so as not to upset the 2016 campaign and Democrat Hillary Clintons perceived status as the likely winner.

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While it took until December for the U.S. intelligence community to formally release a declassified report detailing that Russia had indeed sought to interfere in the 2016 election, and had done so with the aim of aiding Trumps candidacy and harming Clintons, the White House had made public as far back as October that the Kremlin was behind the wave of cyberattacks against mostly Democratic targets.

But Gingrich said Tuesday that Congress must seek answers from Obama as to why he did not do more to stop the cyberattacks during the campaign.

The Congress has an obligation to call him in. How can you be told the president of the United States knew last August the Russians were, in fact, involved in this and not ask him and ask him under oath? I mean, how can you be so irresponsible? the former speaker said.

The House and Senate are going to have to call Obama in and say, Who told you? When did you have the meetings? Who advised you? Why did you not decide to do anything? And then why did you keep quiet for six months while everybody looked at the Russians and Trump when you, in fact, had this information last August?

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Gingrich: Congress has 'obligation' to call Obama to testify on Russia - Politico

Trump has, in fact, gone out of his way to attack Obama, as in his recent nonsensical reversal wherein he attacked Obama for his lack of response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election: "Obama did NOTHING," Trump tweeted. He went on to accuse Obama of colluding with the Russians! By now the world is familiar with this Trump ploy: He engages in unscrupulous business deals, so he labels Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary." He lies, so he calls Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted." On and on. Anyone who calls him out on any failure gets the same accusation hurled back in his or her face, and -- to a shocking extent -- this trick works. Or it works with Trump supporters, who don't seem to care if he wrecks their health care, allows factories to poison their water, or provides massive tax cuts for the rich people they admire so much. THIS is making America great again. The truth is, Obama confronted Putin directly about intervening in our political system and put in place sanctions, though he clearly didn't do enough. "I feel like we sort of choked," one former colleague of Obama has said, according to an article in the Washington Post. This is too bad, as the Russians pulled off the crime of the century, possibly derailing Clinton, a tough critic of Russia. Today we have an incompetent President who (for reasons we might discover soon enough) appears unwilling to oppose the Russian regime.

Obama's weak responses to Trump have been troubling. I don't know why he didn't simply open the intelligence files on Putin to the American public, saying: "My God, look what the Russians are trying to do! Put up your guard!" There can be no sound reason for not alerting the people of this country to a major attack on their most cherished right, the right to vote.

I'm also unhappy about Obama's response to Trumpcare. His language was strong enough:

Again and again, Trump strikes and Obama turns the other cheek. What's going on here?

There is a longstanding Christian tradition of turning the other cheek, and that's usually the best approach to abuse. But one should remember that Jesus also turned over the tables of merchants and moneychangers in Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. He accused them of transforming the holiest site in Judaism into a "den of thieves." (Mark 11:17) I wonder if the analogy here, with Trump and his cohorts, isn't more apt than we think.

But quietism seems misguided in this context. Political life is where we create a community. What is government but our community made visible? If we are to create a community that takes pride in how it cares for its own, one that promotes decent values, such as humility and tolerance and the wish to share, we have no choice but to step forward, to declare ourselves and speak up for our values.

Obama needs to find his voice now in ways that, during his time in the Oval Office, he was too often reluctant to do, perhaps fearing the immense power of the bully pulpit

But now there is a real bully in the pulpit, and Obama -- like the rest of us -- has no choice but to speak, and to act.

My hope for Obama is that, in his post-presidency, he steps forward boldly to say whatever feels true in his mind. And he must do so in the most public ways. I would urge him to speak up, not indirectly on Facebook, but to declare himself more publicly and without reservation, revealing his ideas, his passions. There may be some fatal flaw here, of course, one that disallows a full-throated singing of his song. But I hope it isn't so.

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Why isn't Obama hitting back at Trump? - CNN