Trump Acknowledges Russian Election ‘Meddling’ in Tweet Criticizing Obama

The statement said Russian President Vladimir Putin directed operatives in a cyber attack against the 2016 campaign in attempts to disrupt and discredit the USA election.

United States President Donald Trump on Saturday questioned why former President Barack Obama’s administration did not do more to stop the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

President Trump took to Twitter to question his predecessor’s judgment and actions – at the end of a week characterized by a steady drumbeat of questions about how and when the Obama administration chose to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

But Cooper said President Donald Trump and his administration “continue to be blasé about it”, before playing a clip of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and CNN host Alisyn Camerota sparring over what Trump is doing to combat the growing cyber threat that Russian Federation poses to the Western world.

The nation’s intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian Federation engaged in a brazen, sophisticated campaign to sway the election in Trump’s favor.

They involve the president’s firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey, who led one of the inquiries, and Mr Trump’s alleged attempt to end a probe into sacked national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump made similar comments Friday, tweeting that the Obama administration knew of Russia’s activities “far in advance” of the election but took no action. “Did nothing about it. WHY?”

Schiff’s remarks came on the heels of an explosive Washington Post story detailing the Obama administration’s struggle to hold Russian Federation responsible for its actions.

“Focus on them, not T!” the President wrote Saturday..

But following a Washington Post report Friday Trump seemed to have changed his approach.

Regarding the punishing of the Putin regime, this past week, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stalled a Senate plan to pass additional Trump-proof sanctions on Russian officials in retaliation for last year’s election meddling – though, there are several complicating factors surrounding that plan. “They didn’t want to hurt Hillary?”, Trump tweeted.

He provided no explanation or evidence for why this would have helped Clinton. As per the report submitted by CIA, Putin had given clear instructions to defeat or sabotage the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

According to the paper, Mr Obama directly confronted Mr Putin a month later in China during a meeting of world leaders.

Complacency may have also undercut the administration’s efforts to punish Russian Federation. He believed Mrs Clinton was going to win anyway, so it was best not to rock the boat.

One administration official told The Post that the White House “sort of choked” with its weak response.

The ultimate decision whether to pursue the program was left to Trump, who is now facing FBI, Department of Justice and congressional investigations into whether he or his associates colluded with Russian Federation or attempted to obstruct justice as part of a cover-up.

For some Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, the bombshell report affirmed what they said they had long suspected.

“Nothing like the extensive hacking effort and manipulation effort could occur without his involvement”, the Oregon Democrat told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. Jeff Merkley told CNN.

“We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russian Federation and Putin”.

To collude is to “come to a secret understanding for a harmful goal; conspire”, which is not what Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party did in the primary. Mike Conaway and Adam Schiff to the president’s tweets.

The country’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying Kiev “considers this visit… to be a gross violation of the sovereignty of the State and the territorial integrity of Ukraine”, according to the Russian TASS news agency.