Putin’s GOP lovers pose a hack of a danger: Bam

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in an interview airing Sunday, hit back at charges that he underestimated Russian President Vladimir Putin while warning against Republicans who cheer on the strongman.

“I don’t think I underestimated him,” Obama said on ABC’s “This Week” amid fallout from intelligence findings that he ordered hackers to influence the 2016 race.

“But I think that 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.”

Obama has been outspoken in recent months in his assertion that the Russian government led hacking efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 race — a claim backed up by a joint intelligence report the CIA, FBI and NSA released Friday. The agencies said not only was Putin behind the attacks, but also their consensus was he meddled in the U.S. election to help President-elect Donald Trump win.

Trump has rejected that conclusion as he continues to post favorable tweets about Putin.

Obama cautioned that “Vladimir Putin’s not on our team. If we get to a point where people in this country feel more affinity with a leader who is an adversary and view the United States and our way of life as a threat to him, then we’re going to have bigger problems than just cyberhacking.”