WASHINGTON
President
Barack Obama vowed Friday to send a "clear message" to Russia for
trying to sway the US election, while calling on Donald Trump and
Republicans to put national security before politics.
Obama
all-but accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering
an audacious cyber hack that many Democrats believe gravely wounded
Hillary Clinton in a closely fought election.
The
US intelligence community has concluded that a hack-and-release of the
Democratic Party emails was designed to put Trump — a political neophyte
who has praised Putin — into the Oval Office.
But
with tensions rising between the world's two preeminent nuclear powers
and US political anger near boiling point after Trump's shock election,
Obama sought to exude calm while promising a measured response.
Assuring
Americans that the ballot itself was not rigged, he promised to "send a
clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us, because we can
do stuff to you."
Noting that "not much happens in Russia
without Vladimir Putin," Obama said he had personally told the former
KGB officer when they met in September to "cut it out."
"In
fact we did not see further tampering of the election process," he told
journalists before heading for his Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
Regarding
specific acts of retaliation, Obama said some would be carried out
publicly, but that in other cases, "the message will be directly
received by the Russians and not publicized."
Obama's
comments come as Putin registered a major propaganda victory in Syria
and became a focal point of American political debate.
Despite
those coups, Obama belittled Russia as a second rate power with little
going for it, using language that is sure to infuriate the
status-conscious Russian leader.
"The
Russians can't change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller
country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn't produce
anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They
don't innovate."
RONNIE'S GRAVE
But Obama's sternest message may have been for Trump and other Republicans who have played down the cyber attack.
"Over
a third of Republican voters approve of Vladimir Putin," Obama said
citing a recent poll. "Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave. How
did that happen?"
Obama urged the
president elect — who has repeatedly questioned Russia's involvement —
to accept an independent nonpartisan investigation.
"My
hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned
with making sure that we don't have potential foreign influence in our
election process."
While Obama has
ordered his own inquiry, a political battle is already being waged in
Washington between Republicans who want a Congressional process they can
control and Democrats who want to see something like the bipartisan
9/11 Commission.
"One way I do
believe the president-elect can approach this that would be unifying is
to say that we welcome a bipartisan, independent process," Obama said.
The outgoing president rejected suggestions that he had been slow to respond to the claims of Russian interference.
"My
primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election
process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was
said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen
through a partisan lens," he said.
Obama also issued his fiercest warning shot for President-elect Trump about embracing illiberal politics.
"Mr
Putin can weaken us just like he's trying to weaken Europe if we start
buying into notions that it's okay to intimidate the press. Or lock up
dissidents. Or discriminate against people because of their faith or
what they look like," he said.
Republicans
were unimpressed by Obama's efforts to dial back tensions, with Senator
Ben Sasse accusing Obama of a "mere scolding of dictators."
"Instead
of President Obama's vague 'we can do stuff,' Congress should debate
upending Putin's calculus with a full menu of diplomatic, economic,
military, and cyber responses," Sasse said.
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