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Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin is a rare bird in the Trump administration, having been a top Obama pick when he was the department's undersecretary for health through the 2016 election.

So, we asked him how things have changed under Trump, and he said it is all for the good.

"I have found that mandate from him, to get this organization fixed and the support and freedom to go out and challenge old assumptions, as exactly what the VA needs right now," Shulkin said.

"I think the organization feels more empowered to fix problems than they have in the past, and my hope is that we will be able to set the path so that the organization is earning back that trust that it needs," he added.

Shulkin, who has won kudos for his management acumen, said that the president is using a businessman's sense to fix government.

"The president very much looks at this organization like running a business. And he understands that you need to allow the manager of the business to have the freedom to go out and to challenge assumptions and to make decisions," said the secretary during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

And that's a good thing?

"Slow, incremental change isn't what this organization needs," he said. "He did not come in to make incremental change; he came in to set a fundamental different course in direction when it comes to providing services to veterans," Shulkin said. "Acting quicker and more decisively is part of that management style."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com

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Obama holdover: Trump style 'quicker, more decisive' - Washington Examiner

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

For the second time in as many days, President Trump took aim at his predecessor, former President Obama, for what Trump said was a failure to act on intelligence that Russia was meddlingin the 2016 election.

Trump appeared to quote from a Washington Post report detailing the Obama administration's struggle to decide how to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election. I feel like we sort of choked, a former Obama administration official told the paper in describing those deliberations.

The Post report stated that the CIA informed Obama in August that Russian President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in a hacking campaign to disrupt theelection by defeating Hillary Clinton and helping to elect Trump.

The Obama administration responded by issuing a series of warnings to Russia and later approved a package of punitive measures that included economic sanctions. Obama also authorized the planting of cyberweapons in Russia's infrastructure in a measure that was still in its planning stages when he left office, according to the Post report.

The Obama administration firstpublicly announced Russia's alleged election meddling on Oct. 7 but stopped short of saying that the efforts were aimed at helping Trump win.

See the article here:
Trump again faults Obama for Russian election meddling - Los Angeles Times

Barack Obama.

There is a tradition that when presidents leave the White House, they fade into the background. But these are not traditional times in America and former president Barack Obama is a young former president who left office popular. He also left his political party without an heir apparent, meaning hes the fallback?

In small, but visible ways Obama is still very relevant.

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He traveled to Europe at the same time as President Trump who there as part of his first foreign trip as president. He then continued his bromance with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month when the two met for a meal in Montreal, the pictures quickly exploding on social media. And then theres his latest: On Thursday he took to Facebook to write a detailed defence of the Affordable Care Act. Hours later, he agreed to his first post-presidency campaign event -- likely a rally for the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, with no date yet set.

Obama probably didnt plan for his presidential afterlife to be like this. He might have looked the polls last fall, as most did, and assumed that Hillary Clinton would win. If that had happened, he likely would have instead focused on writing his memoirs, setting up his presidential library, and a giving a few paid speeches around the world.

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But, of course, Clinton did not win and the current president has something of a fixation on tearing down Obamas legacy. This is particularly true when it comes to issues of immigration, health care, the Iran nuclear deal and on the environment.

Compound that with the fact that Donald Trump has had consistently low approval ratings and the Democratic Party is in ruins without any sign of a comeback. Obama, by contrast, left office with the highest approval ratings of any outgoing president since Ronald Reagan. Hes the Democrats best -- and perhaps only -- effective voice right now.

In the past, the party might have pushed a former president to lie low so as to give the next generation the spotlight. Not this time.

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Of course Obama is not the only one from the last administration still in the mix. Joe Biden has been touring the country, speaking at political events. Even former attorney general Eric Holder was the keynote speaker at a Virginia Democratic party fundraiser last week.

Others arent complaining that Obama is still around. Trump repeatedly brings up the former president on Twitter as a foil. Democrats, still mired in the harsh feelings of the Clinton/Sanders 2016 Democratic primary, seem to find a rare bit of common ground on the fact they like him.

Just how much more time Obama spends under the lights is really up to him. In political retirement he can choose which battles he wants to fight. Though if Obama enjoys it, he might usher in a new model for former presidents. Can you imagine what a Trump post-presidency would look like?

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Barack Obama is still around. This is good news for Trump and Democrats - The Boston Globe

Former President Obama and his family landed on the resort island of Bali in Indonesia on Friday to begin a nine-day trip to the country that Obama called home for several years.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that Obama would travel with his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, to the ancient city ofYogyakarta where Obama's mother Ann Dunham once did anthropological research.

The family will also visit Borobudur, a 9th century Buddhist temple complex in Central Java, and have been invited to the Bogor Palace in West Java. The AP reports the Obamas are expected to spend most of the vacation at a resort in Ubud, an arts and culture center.

Obama is expected to speak to the 4th Indonesian Diaspora Congress in Jakarta on July 1, and will visit several cultural heritage sites across the country.

Obama's trip coincides with a major effort by Indonesia's Tourism Ministry to promote travel to the country, especially from the United States. TheJakarta Postreported that the Tourism Ministry will display promotional material in Times Square in New York City during the Obamas's vacation.

It was effective because there was a momentum, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya told the Post.

The Tourism Ministry often launches these campaigns during visits from foreign leaders. The Jakarta Post reported that the ministry funded a similar campaign in March when Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud visited Indonesia for 11 days.

Obama moved to the country at age 6 with his mother, and then moved back to the U.S. at age 10 to live with his grandparents.

The rest is here:
Obama visits Bali, expected to promote Indonesian tourism - The Hill