Obama Choked

[fred flintstone]

The Obama administration was slow and cautious in its response to the Kremlin's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, according to a explosive Washington Post report published Friday.

The Obama White House anxiously considering for months how to punish Russia for a coordinated influence and hacking campaign intended to politically damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump.

The slow response has led to second-guessing in the aftermath.

“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” the Post quoted one Obama administration official as saying. “I feel like we sort of choked.”

Former President Obama and his top aiders learned that Moscow's efforts to interfere in the presidential race had been ordered at the highest levels in August.

But faced with then-candidate Trump's assertions that the election would be rigged, Obama was wary to give the appearance that he was interfering in the campaign.

What's more, the widely held assumption among Democrats that Clinton would win in November slowed the administration's pace in responding, according to the Post.
The administration considered a slew of responses during the election, including cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and the release of Russian President Vladimir Putin's financial records or other potentially embarrassing intelligence, the Post reported.

The administration's response ultimately came in December, more than a month after Trump's victory, when Obama approved a new round of targeted economic sanctions and expelled 35 diplomats from the U.S.

“I don’t think any of us thought of sanctions as being a primary way of expressing our disapproval” a senior administration official involved in the decision told the Post. “Going after their intelligence services was not about economic impact. It was symbolic.”

He also ordered the planting of cyber weapons in Russian infrastructure, though that plan did not come to fruition before Obama left office in January, and Trump would be responsible for deciding to move forward with the plan.



Michael McFaul, who served as Obama's ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, said it was clear that the U.S. response was not proportional to the actions perpetrated by Moscow.

“The punishment did not fit the crime,” he told the Post. “Russia violated our sovereignty, meddling in one of our most sacred acts as a democracy – electing our president."

The Kremlin should have paid a much higher price for that attack," he added. "And U.S. policymakers now – both in the White House and Congress – should consider new actions to deter future Russian interventions.”

Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that the administration had treated the Russian meddling as a threat to the country's cyber infrastructure.

Meanwhile, he said, the Russians were "playing this much bigger game which included elements like released hacked materials, political propaganda and propagating fake news, which they’d pursued in other countries.”

“We weren’t able to put all of those pieces together in real time, and in many ways that complete picture is still being filled in," he told the Post.

A spokesman for Obama insisted in a statement to the Post that the former president was "extremely serious" in his response to the election meddling.

“This situation was taken extremely seriously, as is evident by President Obama raising this issue directly with President Putin; 17 intelligence agencies issuing an extraordinary public statement; our homeland security officials working relentlessly to bolster the cyber defenses of voting infrastructure around the country; the President directing a comprehensive intelligence review, and ultimately issuing a robust response including shutting down two Russian compounds, sanctioning nine Russian entities and individuals, and ejecting 35 Russian diplomats from the country,” the statement reads.

Russia's role in the 2016 election, as well as possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, has become the subject of a special counsel investigation, as well as probes by at least four congressional committees.

Trump has repeatedly denied any coordination with the Russians, and has referred to the special counsel investigation as a "cloud" hanging over his administration.

Obama official: We 'choked' on Russia response: report | TheHill

[raycarey]

the rationale for his inaction is here...

faced with then-candidate Trump's assertions that the election would be rigged, Obama was wary to give the appearance that he was interfering in the campaign.

What's more, the widely held assumption among Democrats that Clinton would win in November slowed the administration's pace in responding

[longway]

So the russians were taking over the usa and oblahblah stood idly by while it happened.

Just when you think it cant get anymore bizarre and humiliating for you dims.

I hope for your sake, he doesn't cap your embarrassment with one of crying jags in a press conference.

[kmart]

Ramping up the new cold war propaganda against Russia. Utter bullshit.

[jabir]

Probably unsuitable for TD, but whether by accident or design it worked; either Clinton wins and provides her own response to alleged Russian interference which many are still waiting to see conclusively proven, or Trump wins and the Left adds yet another to the blame list as a diversion from its appalling choice of candidate.

[raycarey]

Utter bullshit.

[raycarey]

only in their wildest dreams did the russians think that trump would win due to their interference....their goal was to sow distrust in the american electoral process and other institutions.

had trump lost, he would have been on fox everyday saying it was rigged (FFS, he was saying it was rigged before the election), and the russians would have thought their plan successful.

[kmart]

their goal was to sow distrust in the american electoral process and other institutions.

Yeah. tough job, eh?

[Slick]

This entire article read & reeks of Democrats "anonymously" trying to "explain away" why Obama did what he did.

Speaking to the press & giving them selective crumbs to construct an article that paints a certain picture. Obama's a good guy, he didn't wanna seem like he was interfering because trump said bla bla bla.

[longway]

only in their wildest dreams did the russians think that trump would win due to their interference....their goal was to sow distrust in the american electoral process and other institutions.

had trump lost, he would have been on fox everyday saying it was rigged (FFS, he was saying it was rigged before the election), and the russians would have thought their plan successful.

why dont you just accept you lost because you had a shitty candidate and incompetent leadership. you might actually win something.. actually why bother

yeah those russians eh? you better keep screaming about that, it all makes you guys look so cool.

[Slick]

their goal was to sow distrust in the american electoral process and other institutions.

You idiots were crying about doing away with the entire Electoral College process as soon as Trump won. Russia was just a little blip on the radar at that time & you guys were screaming to scrap our longheld democratic process & the legitimate rationale behind it in favor of calling it 'racist' & 'because slavery' & whatever else dogshit you could dream up because you lost.

Now its Russia ffs.

[raycarey]

why dont you just accept you lost because you had a shitty candidate

yeah, clinton was a shitty candidate. she would have been a far superior president, but campaigning is not her strength.

and i hate to break it to you sport, but i didn't lose anything, and you didn't win anything. you don't really think that you actually won something do you? FFS, you're not even an american. reminds me of those morons who think that they win when their local sports team wins....'we kicked the yankees asses last night'....errr....no you didn't. you watched it on TV...the players who actually competed against the yankees kicked their asses.

[longway]

^ I won my bet with rant and a heap of money loser.

Clunkton is disaster zone. An ex president and president campaigning for her, several times the amount of money, hundreds of staff, the dnc in her pocket, decade of experienceand she loses to a fist timer who campaigned through Twitter, and one of the most unpopular candidates ever.

How on earth did even that nitwit fuck it up?

[Dragonfly]

she would have been a far superior president

not sure she would have been any better, not as vocal but as annoying in her own way

also a lot of scandals distracting everyone, from her mail server leaks to the DNC emails etc... not as spectacular as Trump, but that usually don't stop the press from blowing up everything out of proportion

[Dragonfly]

How on earth did even that nitwit fuck it up?

she must be hasking herself the same question over and over and losing her head over it

[longway]

she would have been a far superior president

not sure she would have been any better, not as vocal but as annoying in her own way

also a lot of scandals distracting everyone, from her mail server leaks to the DNC emails etc... not as spectacular as Trump, but that usually don't stop the press from blowing up everything out of proportion

Even that trope has had its day. She has been exposed as a cheat and then after losing she blamed everyone else for her loss. She threw the dnc under the bus without hesitation.

She is crap in every way, no class, poor judgement and actually a narcissistic buffoon who thought her vagina meant that she was owed the presidency. The world dodged a bullet there.

[Dragonfly]

in some ways, Hillary was a good match for that pig of Trump

he couldn't have won that easy without her,

she had more influence on the election than all the Russian servers hack combined