Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said that former President Barack Obama’s response to Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election was clearly insufficient.
Carter, who served as secretary of defense from Feb. 2015 through Jan. 2017, said that Obama administration did take some actions, it was clear that it was not sufficient during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“If it were sufficient, Vladimir Putin’s answer to our president wouldn’t have been to cast doubt upon it or ask for further intelligence from the United States,” Carter told host Dana Bash.
President Donald Trump said June 26th that Obama did nothing about Russian meddling because he expected Clinton to win.
The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2017
The Washington Post issued a detailed report June 23 about what Obama knew about Russian interference and when it was brought to his attention.
The report highlighted how the Obama administration handled the situation, and examined whether or not the administration should have warned the American public immediately. It “was the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” one former official admitted to WaPo. “I feel like we sort of choked.”
“You said that more could have been done. Did President Obama make a mistake in not doing more?” Bash asked Carter directly.
“He took some steps, no question about it,” Carter responded. “But I think you see from Vladimir Putin’s answer right now that more needs to be done.”
He explained that Putin believes Russia can continue to interfere with future elections without big consequences. Putin is not convinced that there will be drastic repercussions for meddling in the future.
“That hasn’t been accomplished yet,” Carter said.
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