President Obama on Friday tied election-year hacks of Democrats to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and warned Republicans that “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave” if he saw so many in the GOP expressing fondness for leaders in Moscow.
“Not
much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin,” Obama told reporters at
his final press conference of 2016. “I will let you make that
determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who
go off rogue and decide to tamper with the U.S. election process without
Vladimir Putin knowing about it.”
The president promised unspecific and potentially secret retaliation against Russia, telling Putin, “We can do stuff to you,” and took pains to belittle Moscow’s influence over world affairs.
“The
Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us,” he said. “They
are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn’t
produce anything that anyone wants to buy except oil and gas and arms.
They don’t innovate. But they can impact us if we lose track of who we
are. They can impact us if we abandon our values.”
Obama
pointed to a public opinion poll that, he said, showed 37 percent of
Republicans have a favorable view of Putin, blaming the “fierceness of
partisan battle” in the United States for driving Americans into the arms of a historic foe. During the campaign, Donald Trump often heaped praise on Putin, whom he labeled a stronger leader than the U.S. president.
“Over
a third of Republican voters approve of Vladimir Putin, the former head
of the KGB,” Obama said. “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave.”
Asked whether his administration will provide evidence to back up charges of Russian meddling, Obama gave a guarded response.
“We
will provide evidence that we can safely provide, that does not
compromise sources and methods. But I’ll be honest with you, when you
are talking about cybersecurity, a lot of it is classified and we’re not
going to provide it, because the way we catch folks is by knowing
certain things about them that they may not want us to know, and if
we’re going to monitor this stuff effectively going forward, we don’t
want them to know that we know.”
But
he expressed disbelief that Americans would trust Putin’s word over
statements from the U.S. spy community. His comments came shortly after
it was disclosed that the FBI agrees with the CIA’s conclusions that Russia targeted Democrats with the aim of helping Trump win on Nov. 8.
“This
is one of those situations where, unless the American people genuinely
think that the professionals in the CIA, the FBI, our entire
intelligence infrastructure — many of whom, by the way, served in
previous administrations, and who are Republicans — are less trustworthy
than the Russians, then people should pay attention to what our
intelligence agencies say,” Obama said.
Obama
said he had confronted Putin during a September meeting about the
cyberintrusions, telling the Russian leader to “cut it out.” He said he
had delivered a similar warning to President Xi Jinping of China, which
U.S. officials have blamed for major cyberattacks against the U.S. government and American firms.
And he promised that Moscow would pay a price for its alleged interference.
“Our
goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to
do this to us because we can do stuff to you, but it is also important
for us to do that in a thoughtful, methodical way,” Obama said. “Some of
it we do publicly. Some of it we will do in a way that they know but
not everybody will.”
President Obama speaks during a news conference. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump
and some of his top aides have played down the potential impact of
Russia’s alleged actions and cast doubt on the CIA’s findings. Last
Friday, Trump’s transition team dismissed those findings, saying in a statement, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”
At
his press conference, Obama said the back-and-forth between the White
House and the incoming administration would not hamper cooperation on
the transfer of power.
“I
think they would be the first to acknowledge that we have done
everything we can to make sure that they are successful, as I promised,
and that will continue,” he said.
Obama
repeatedly emphasized the importance of a free and independent news
media, but also took aim at the press over its widespread coverage of
leaked emails linked to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“You
guys wrote about it every day, every single leak about every little
juicy tidbit of political gossip, including John Podesta’s risotto recipe,” the president said. “This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage.”
As
a result, he said, “I don’t think she was treated fairly during the
election. I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling.”
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