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Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., on Sunday again decried Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential race and called for a select Senate committee to investigate the country's cyber activities during the election. On CNN's "State of the Union," McCain told host Jake Tapper that there was "no doubt" Russia interfered with the election.
This week we saw the shocking spectacle of our president-elect parroting Vladimir Putin's propaganda line and attempting to discredit the unanimous view of our intelligence agencies that Russia sought to meddle in our presidential election. On Friday the intelligence community had enough.
The CIA, according to The Washington Post, has now determined that hackers working for the Russian government worked to tilt the 2016 election to Donald Trump. This actually has been obvious for months, but the agency was reluctant to state that conclusion before the election out of fear that it would be seen as taking a political role.
Over the past four months, US intelligence agencies and aides to President Obama assembled a menu of options to respond to Russia's hacking during the election, ranging from the obvious - exposing President Vladimir Putin's financial ties to oligarchs - to the innovative, including manipulating the computer code that Russia uses in designing its cyberweapons. But while Obama vowed Friday to "send a clear message to Russia" as both punishment and deterrent, some of the options were rejected as ineffective, others as too risky.
As news rolls in about Russia's likely sabotage of the American political system, the noose is beginning to tighten uncomfortably around Republicans. The only question that matters now is this: what did Donald Trump know about the hacks on his political opponents, and when did he know it? It is becoming increasingly clear from all sides that Russian intelligence-likely at the specific direction of Vladimir Putin -perpetrated the hack on the Democratic National Committee and on Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
As President Obama pointed his finger directly at the Russians over election year hacking of Democratic Party aides, intelligence officials are now presenting a united front about Russian involvement in the 2016 race for President, as Mr. Obama defended the conclusions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. "The intelligence that I've seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that the Russians carried out this hack," the President said, blaming Russia for getting emails both from the Democratic National Committee and top Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta.
President Barack Obama suggested strongly on Friday that Russia's Vladimir Putin knew about the email hackings that roiled the U.S. presidential race, and he urged his successor, Republican Donald Trump, to back a bipartisan investigation into the matter. "Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin," Obama said in his year-end news conference.
Corporate TV news anchors including MSNBC's Chris Hayes are reporting as fact-with fuming indignation-that Russia not only sought to influence the U.S. election but to throw the vote to Donald Trump. The main accusation is that the DNC and Podesta emails leaked through WikiLeaks were provided by state-backed Russian hackers .
President Barack Obama has put Russia's Vladimir Putin on notice that the U.S. could use offensive cyber muscle to retaliate for interference in the U.S. presidential election, his strongest suggestion to date that Putin had been well aware of campaign email hacking. Caught in the middle of a post-election controversy over Russian hacking, Obama strongly defended his administration's response, including his refusal before the voting to ascribe motive to the meddling or to discuss now what effect it might have had.
President Barack Obama put Russia's Vladimir Putin on notice Friday that the U.S. could use its offensive cybermuscle to retaliate for interference in the U.S. presidential election, his strongest suggestion to date that Putin had been well aware of the email hacking during the campaign. Caught in the middle of a post-election controversy over Russian hacking, Obama strongly defended his administration's response, including his refusal before the voting to ascribe motive to the meddling or to discuss now what effect it might have had.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday strongly suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally oversaw the computer hacks of Democratic Party emails that American intelligence officials say were aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump win the Nov. 8 election. At a pre-Christmas press conference, Obama leveled a fierce attack against Russia, calling it a smaller and weaker country than the United States that "does not produce anything that others want to buy, except oil and gas and arms."
President Obama didn't come right out and say it but it was pretty clear at his last press conference of 2016, that he thought the Vladimir Putin was involved in the election year email hacks. In a press conference this afternoon, President Obama all but blamed Vladimir Putin for the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta --and all but said those hacks were intended to boost Trump.
President Barack Obama is promising that the U.S. will retaliate against Russia for its suspected meddling in America's election process, an accusation the Kremlin has vehemently denied. Amid calls on both sides of the political aisle on Capitol Hill for a full-bore congressional investigation, including assertions President Vladimir Putin was personally involved, Obama said in an interview that anytime a foreign government tries to interfere in U.S. elections, the nation must take action "and we will at a time and place of our own choosing."
Last week saw a delightfully breathless editorial in the Washington Post , followed by an even more preposterous companion piece at Politico , claiming that legislation changing how the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and other U.S. government-sponsored broadcasters are organized is somehow handing dictatorial control of American media to Donald Trump. Last week saw a delightfully breathless editorial in the Washington Post , followed by an even more preposterous companion piece at Politico , claiming that legislation changing how the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and other U.S. government-sponsored broadcasters are organized is somehow handing dictatorial control of American media to Donald Trump.
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter. Out of all of the recent developments in the news about Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential race - the CIA's conclusion that it was done to help Donald Trump, the NBC report that Vladimir Putin was personally involved - the biggest has been Trump's reaction.
Donald Trump had people around him who had quite a lot to do with Russia or Ukraine, former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Andrew Wood said It is "almost impossible" that Donald Trump would not have known about Russian hacking during the US presidential election, a former ambassador to Moscow said as Barack Obama vowed that America would respond to the action. The outgoing president said the US would react at a "time and place of our choosing" to the hacking of Democratic officials' emails in the run-up to the election.
Weeks after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, some of her loyal supporters have not given up hope. Clay Pell, a vocal supporter of the Democrat during her long campaign and one of the 538 members of the Electoral College, said the process has been tarnished by Russian interference.
DECEMBER 14: US President Barack Obama speaks during the annual My Brother's Keeper event at the White House, December 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON - President Obama promised to retaliate against Russia for its attempts to undermine the U.S. elections process, saying that the United States would take action "at a time and place of our own choosing."