Intelligence obtained by the CIA last summer found that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a cyber campaign intended to help elect Donald Trump and damage the electoral chances of Hillary Clinton, according to an exhaustive Washington Post report out Friday into the Obama administration’s response to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 campaign.
This explosive information was first delivered to former president Barack Obama in Aug. 2016, according to the newspaper.
The Post investigation details how Obama and his team struggled to develop a response to this unprecedented interference by a foreign country, worrying that they would be seen as trying to tip the scales in the presidential race. By the time the CIA’s warning arrived, the Obama White House knew that Russian hackers were behind cyberattacks on Democratic Party operatives and the Democratic National Committee, and that the FBI had launched an investigation into ties between Russian officials and Trump campaign staffers.
Trump, who has repeatedly cast doubt the extent of Russia’s interference, has criticized the Obama administration for not doing more to “stop them.”
By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testified before the House Intelligence Committee this week that Trump’s repeated insistence that the election would be “rigged” against him stymied their response.
For now, the only action the U.S. has taken in response to Russia is an Obama administration package involving the expulsion of 35 diplomats, closure of two Russian diplomatic compounds, and imposition of new, narrowly targeted economic sanctions.
For those who wanted a stronger response from Obama, consider that he absolutely did not want anything that would spin up into a military conflict for both security reasons and because it would be blown up as “Obama’s trying to rig the election by rallying everyone around the flag for him and Hillary”.
Shutting down the spy houses and whatnot may have seemed rather mild, but it was intended as a pointed message to Russia – “we know what you’re up to, and we’re watching”…and he would leave the stronger measures for the next president (Hillary) to handle.
If anything, Obama failed to realize how deeply the Russian corruption had set into our electoral system, and as such he didn’t countenance that Dumblefluck would ever steal the presidency – to say nothing of considering that Dumble would never allow anything that hurt his masters in Moscow to ever come to pass.
BHO, like everyone else in this country, had no idea just how completely crooked and compromised Dumble and his paymasters were, and how rigged the elections truly were.
And the GOP howled POLITICS when told of the plot.
Why?
Donald J. Trump, a 71-year old Twitter troll, made another statesmanlike statement.
So we can now, legitimately, refer to this as the Putin Presidency.
Actually I think he just couldn’t bring himself to believe that there could be 60+ million complete morons in America.