Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Obama insists he did not underestimate Putin
Counter arguments about hacking swirl as Trump enters crucial week
The president said, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” that what he misjudged was the degree “misinformation” and cyberhacking would have on democratic practices.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama insisted in an interview that aired Sunday he did not underestimate Russian President Vladimir Putin when he dismissed Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign assessment that the country was the top U.S. geopolitical foe. But Obama acknowledged he may have misjudged Russia’s ability to tamper in the American electoral process.
“I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation, for cyberhacking and so forth, to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The comments in the taped interview came as debate over a joint intelligence report on Russia’s alleged effort to help President-elect Donald Trump in the 2016 election continued to rage. Trump and his aides have tried to downplay the report’s findings and would not commit on Sunday to punishing Russia further for the activities than Obama has.
“That is something that the president-elect, when he is sworn-in in less than two weeks, ... will have to decide along with his security and intelligence team,” Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager, told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I do think some people are scratching their heads as to why President Obama took action and punished Russia and Russian operatives before the report was completed, before others had the information.”
Obama announced a raft of punishments in late December, including sanctions and orders for a few dozen Russian intelligence operatives to leave the U.S. He was given a report Thursday from the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency that concluded that Putin ordered agents to interfere in the election and ultimately sought to aid Trump’s rise. The president-elect was shown the same report Friday, before a declassified version was made public. But the intelligence agencies came out in October saying Russia was behind the attack.
Thousands of emails pilfered from the Democratic National Committee servers and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman were posted on WikiLeaks and other websites through the summer and fall, undermining Clinton’s campaign.
In another interview on CNN, Conway referred to “alleged attacks” from Russia, contradicting the conclusions from the U.S. intelligence community that the evidence of such attacks was clear. The report did not weigh in on whether those attacks succeeded, something that is difficult to gauge given the multitude of issues and controversies that arose during the election, the closeness of the election results and the failure of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to connect with white working-class voters who swung the outcome.
Trump and his aides have pounced on the lack of definitive findings on whether the attacks affected the election outcome, even though Trump spoke frequently during the campaign about email leaks by WikiLeaks that have been linked to the Russians.
“We didn’t need Wiki-Leaks to convince the American people that they didn’t like her, didn’t trust her, didn’t find her to be honest,” Conway said.
Yet Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Sunday that Trump indeed has accepted that Russia was responsible for the hacking.
“He’s not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular campaign,” Priebus said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Still, he added, that it is “indisputable” that the rollout of the report is “politically motivated to discredit” Trump.
As Obama leaves office, the dispute is not likely to go away. Many in Trump’s own party have called for continued investigation and retaliation against Russia.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., a frequent Trump critic who is calling for more penalties against Russia, said, “He’s going to be the defender of the free world here pretty soon. All I’m asking him is to acknowledge that Russia interfered, and push back. It could be Iran next time. It could be China.”
On Saturday, Trump touted Russia as a potential ally, saying “only ‘stupid’ people, or fools” think improving relations is a bad thing.
“When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and . . . both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!” Trump tweeted.
The developments come during a consequential week for Trump, who will become the nation’s 45th president on Jan. 20.
Beginning Tuesday, the Senate is to hold the first of at least nine hearings this week on Trump’s Cabinet picks. But Democrats have voiced objections to the pace set by the Republican majority.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested the complaints amounted to sour grapes from a party that did poorly in the 2016 congressional and presidential elections.
“All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration in having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“I understand that,” he added, “but we need to sort of grow up here and get past that.”
But the director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, said the Republican management of the confirmation hearings is unusual considering that that in some cases, the office had not received even initial draft financial disclosure reports from Trump nominees.
On Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to hold a longdelayed news conference to describe his plans for his global business empire to avoid conflicts of interest while he’s president. While Trump has taken sporadic questions from reporters, it will be his first full-fledged news conference since July 27.