You would think President Obama would be winding down in the final weeks leading up to Inauguration Day, but there’s some pretty tough talk coming out of the Oval Office.
The U.S. will “take action” against Russia for alleged cyberattacks on Democratic officials, President Obama warned Thursday, hours after his spokesman claimed that President-elect Donald Trump “obviously knew” about the breaches and leaks that critics say propelled him to victory in last month’s election. The tough talk from Obama came in an interview scheduled to air on National Public Radio Friday. It followed complaints of Republican lawmakers that federal authorities refuse to brief them on investigations into Russia’s role in leaking tens of thousands of damaging emails from top Clinton campaign officials.
“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action,” Obama 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.”
Earlier Thursday, Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during the daily White House briefing that “Mr. Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him, [and] hurting [Democrat Hillary] Clinton … “These are all facts that are not in dispute.”
Meanwhile, Wikileaks’ Julian Assange denies the Russian government had anything to do with leaking the Podesta and DNC emails:
“Our source is not the Russian government,” Assange told “The Sean Hannity Show.”
“So in other words, let me be clear,” Hannity asked, “Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?”
“That’s correct,” Assange responded.
… “We have … a strong interest in protecting our sources, and so we never say anything about them, never ruling anyone in or anyone out. And so here, in order to prevent a distraction attack against our publications, we’ve had to come out and say ‘no, it’s not a state party. Stop trying to distract in that way and pay attention to the content of the publication.’”
President-elect Donald Trump has -of course- weighed in on Twitter, pointing out that Democrats were actually the ones trying to influence the results of the election behind the scenes:
Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2016
It is absolutely outrageous that a sitting president and his communications team would work so hard to discredit an incoming president. Rather than sabotaging the incoming administration, the White House should be helping Team Trump transition into their new roles, just like the Bush Administration so graciously did for Team Obama.
Clearly, the Democrats are incapable of putting politics aside to do what’s best for the country.
