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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."
White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016. Earnest answered questions about Russian hacking, healthcare and other topics.
The United States will soon respond to Russia's attack via hacking on the 2016 presidential election, according to President Barack Obama. Speaking to National Public Radio, Obama said, "I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing."
The Obama White House knew about Russian hacking in the summer of 2015, but kept quiet about it because it thought Democrat Hillary Clinton would win anyway, and it did not want to risk a cyber war with our Cold War foe, NBC News reported. "They thought she was going to win, so they were willing to kick the can down the road," NBC quoted one government official familiar with the situation.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday again rejected the CIA's conclusion that Russia manipulated the US election, as the hacking scandal expanded into a hefty foreign policy challenge just five weeks before he takes office. Even as NBC News reported that US intelligence has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a direct hand in the hacking plot, Trump took to Twitter to dismiss the issue, which has been roiling since before he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton on November 8. "If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House waite [sic] so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?" he tweeted.
A US official familiar with the US intelligence assessment of the Russia election-related hacking said the understanding is that the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, the equivalent of those used by the US National Security Agency. The use of the advanced tools suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved in the hacks, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that it was more than a US intelligence assumption at this point.
The Trump-Russia scandal continues to widen, with revelations that are making it increasingly clear that not only do we need a full investigation, but that investigation needs to be independent and bipartisan, and include public hearings. Some Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have suggested that the Senate Intelligence Committee can handle it.
In this June 15, 2012, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson shake hands at a signing ceremony of an agreement between state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft and ExxonMobil at the Black Sea port of Tuapse, southern Russia. President-elect Donald Trump selected Tillerson to lead the State Department on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016.
In this June 15, 2012, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, now secretary of state-designate, shake hands at a signing ceremony of an agreement between state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft and ExxonMobil at the Black Sea port of Tuapse, southern Russia. If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats have agreed on in foreign policy, it is the power of sanctions.
U.S. intelligence officials now believe with "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. US intelligence officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely directly involved in the hacking campaign that targeted Democratic Party officials and organizations during the US presidential election, NBC News reported Tuesday.