title: OBAMA POKES THE BEAR: ‘We Will’ Retaliate Against Russia For “Election Hacking”…RUNS OFF On 5-Star Family Vacation To Hawaii
text: On November 26, 2016 the Obama administration demanded there was no evidence of hackers tampering with the election:The Russians may not have hacked our elections, but that didn t stop Obama from blaming them for affecting Hillary s chances of winning the election. Never mind Hillary s recent use of an unsecured email server while she was serving as Sec of State, or the fact that she has spent most of her adult life under some sort of criminal investigation, or that over half of America said they didn t trust her. It s the damn Russians fault. Anything to taint the legitimacy of soon to be President Trump. President Obama said the United States will retaliate against Russia over its malicious cyberactivity during this year s election, in an interview that will air Friday on NPR. I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections . . . we need to take action,  the president said.  And we will   at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be. Speaking to  Morning Edition  host Steve Inskeep, Obama said  there are still a whole range of assessments taking place among the agencies,  and he is waiting for the report on cyberattacks he has ordered to be delivered by Jan. 20. And so when I receive a final report, you know, we ll be able to, I think, give us a comprehensive and best guess as to those motivations,  Obama said.  But that does not in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately   that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign. There s no doubt that it contributed to an atmosphere in which the only focus for weeks at a time, months at a time were Hillary s emails, the Clinton Foundation, political gossip surrounding the DNC,  he added.  Washington PostRussia responded Friday morning. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin s spokesman, said the U.S. needs to show some proof or quit talking.  It is necessary to either stop talking about it, or finally produce some evidence,  he told Interfax, per the New York Times.  Otherwise, it all begins to look quite unseemly. Obama said his goal is for a definitive White House report on the matter to be issued before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. He was also careful to say that while the Russian hacks benefited Trump, he is not suggesting Trump s campaign helped coordinate the attacks or played any role in them, other than to exploit them for political advantage.  They understood what everybody else understood, which was that this was not good for Hillary Clinton s campaign,  the president said.Obama discussed cybersecurity with Vladimir Putin during a 90-minute meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit held in China in early September. The president characterized the meeting at the time as  candid, blunt, businesslike. While Obama is threatening to retaliate against Russia, he has only about five weeks left in the Oval Office. Trump has dismissed   in fact, mocked   intelligence assessments tying the DNC and Podesta hacks to Russia, and he campaigned on improving the U.S. relationship with the country.In his interview with NPR, Obama appeared mystified by that stance. The irony of all this, of course, is that for most of my presidency, there s been a pretty sizable wing of the Republican Party that has consistently criticized me for not being tough enough on Russia,  he said.  Some of those folks during the campaign endorsed Donald Trump, despite the fact that a central tenet of his foreign policy was we shouldn t be so tough on Russia. And that kind of inconsistency I think makes it appear, at least, that their particular position on Russia on any given day depends on what s politically expedient.   NPR