The former defense secretary for the Obama administration comes clean as he talks about how the Obama administration was well aware of Russia’s meddling in the elections and yet failed to do much against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 election. He stated that the administration took “some actions” against them, however, this “was not sufficient” enough to teach Russia a lesson.
While, on one side, Donald Trump Jr. is under the spotlight for his meeting with a Russian lawyer, the Obama administration too are not very far behind when it comes to building ties with Russia.
As reports revealed by the Washington Post suggested that the Obama administration was well aware of Russia’s hand in the elections, and yet they failed to take any serious measures, President Trump made complete use of this opportunity, as he tweeted, “The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?” Trump tweeted on June 23.
The president argued in a tweet he posted in June that, “The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win..”
This Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Dana Bash met with the former president’s defense secretary. She took this opportunity to allow the public to get a clear understanding of what the administration did or could have done to stop Russia in the near future. Bash asked Carter, as to “why didn’t he [Obama] act?” against Russia?
It has been noted that Ash Carter was personally present in the Situation Room, as the former President was made aware of Russia’s intention in terms of the presidential election.
Carter responded by stating that the former president did take “some actions.” Whereas, the department that he managed “took a wide range of actions.”
“To me, this was part of a pattern. To me, personally, this was part of a pattern with Vladimir Putin. But I don’t think — I think it’s quite clear that was not sufficient,” Carter said.
“That’s why it’s so important to press the Russians now. If it were sufficient, Vladimir Putin’s answer to our president wouldn’t have been to cast doubt upon or ask for further intelligence from the United States,” Carter added.
“Did President Obama make a mistake in not doing more?” Bash asked Carter.
“He took some steps, no question about it. But I think you see from Vladimir Putin’s answer right now that more needs to be done,” Carter said.
“Putin is not convinced that there are going to be consequences of a magnitude for Russia, as a consequence of interfering with the U.S. election that make it unwise for him to do it in the future. That hasn’t been accomplished yet,” Carter said.
While, President Trump hasn’t quite yet set up a press conference to discuss his meeting with Vladimir Putin. However, Reuters has reported Putin stating, “I believe it would not be entirely appropriate on my part to disclose details of my discussion with Mr. Trump. He asked, I answered him. He asked pointed questions, I answered them. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with those answers.”
