President Obama’s approach to Russia for its alleged election meddling has many concerned he wasn’t tough enough
A by The Washington Post sheds light on how President Barack Obama responded to intelligence information regarding Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The report, which “detailed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U. S. presidential race, ” specifically mentioned that Putin’s efforts went further than had been previously reported by the media, the Post noted. Brennan took no chances. Here’s what the Post had to say. Although Obama considered cyberattacks against Russia’s infrastructure, stronger sanctions that would “crater” the Russian economy or releasing embarrassing material about Putin, he ultimately opted to simply close two Russian compounds and expel 35 diplomats. He initiated a process to plant “cyber weapons in Russia’s infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow, ” but that was merely in the planning stages when he left office. While many in the Obama administration defend his response, there was this nugget. Also this: Even before the August report, it was clear that Russia was up to no good, at least to many of the Washington professionals paid to monitor America’s chief superpower rival. And this: Democrats nominated Barack Obama in 2008 in large part because of his firm stance against the Iraq War. Now it appears that same mentality may have been responsible for his underreacting to the Russia threat. When Obama received the August report, his response was understated:
