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Gates: US ‘somewhat laid back’ over Russian election interference Robert Gates criticises 'laid back' US response to Russia election hack
(about 7 hours later)
The former defense secretary Robert Gates has criticised the Obama administration and congressional leaders of both parties for a “somewhat laid back” response to Russian interference in the presidential election. The former CIA director and defense secretary Robert Gates has criticised the Obama administration and congressional leaders of both parties for a “somewhat laid back” response to the discovery of Russian interference in the US presidential election.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press to be broadcast on Sunday, Gates said: “Given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it.” Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Gates said a “thinly disguised” operation by Russia had aimed to undermine the credibility of the American election and was to weaken Hillary Clinton.
The CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies agree that Russia sought to influence the election in favor of the Republican candidate and eventual victor, Donald Trump. This week, the White House said it believed President Vladimir Putin played a direct role. “Given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it,” he said.
Trump has rejected and ridiculed such assertions – as has the Russian government. Barack Obama has ordered a review of all relevant intelligence information. The CIA, FBI, the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies agree that Russia sought to influence the election in favour of Donald Trump. This week, the White House said it believed President Vladimir Putin played a direct role.
On Friday, Obama told a press conference his administration had not acted on evidence of Russian interference during the election because it did not want to appear partisan. It has been reported that the White House expected Hillary Clinton to win. Trump has rejected and ridiculed such assertions – as has Putin’s government. Barack Obama has ordered a review of all relevant intelligence information.
Obama also said he told Putin to “cut it out” – a demand made a month before the first release of hacked Democratic party emails by WikiLeaks – and has promised unspecified retaliation. On Sunday, senators John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Jack Reed repeated their call for an investigation by a bipartisan select committee.
Gates was asked by Meet the Press host Chuck Todd if the White House, congressional leaders of both parties and Trump himself had shown enough urgency on the issue of Russian interference in the election. “The fact that they’re hacking our political system and trying to influence the outcome, as it seems to be, that is serious, serious stuff,” Schumer told a press conference in New York.
He answered: “No.” The senators released an open letter to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell requesting support for the select committee. Gates said he was unsure if the aim was to swing the election to Trump.
He added: “Maybe part of the problem was that it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response. “Whether it was intended to help one or other candidate, I don’t know,” he said. “But I think it clearly was aimed at discrediting our elections and I think it was aimed certainly at weakening Mrs Clinton.”
“Attribution is a challenge but it seems pretty clear to me that they’ve developed really reliable information that the Russian government was involved.” Gates worked for Republican and Democratic presidents, as CIA director under George HW Bush and secretary of defense under George W Bush and Obama. Asked by NBC host Chuck Todd if the White House, leaders of both parties and Trump had shown enough urgency, he answered flatly: “No.”
US intelligence agencies believe Russian or Russian-sponsored actions included the hack of emails belonging to figures from the Democratic National Committee and other party bodies, which were released by WikiLeaks and covered extensively in the media, leading in some cases to resignations. He added: “It seems pretty clear to me that they’ve developed really reliable information that the Russian government was involved.”
Gates told NBC Russia had carried out “a thinly disguised, covert operation intended to discredit the American election and to basically allow the Russians to communicate to the rest of the world that our elections are corrupt, incompetent, rigged, whatever and therefore no more honest than anybody else’s in the world, including theirs”. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, McCain criticized Obama, saying the president had “no strategy and no policy”.
Putin had acted, said Gates, repeating criticisms of the gap between Obama’s “rhetoric” and action on foreign policy, after seeing “the United States withdrawing from around the world”. “We need a select committee, we need to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “We need to find out exactly what was done and exactly what the implications of the attacks were, especially if they had an effect on our election. There is no doubt they [the Russians] were interfering.”
John McCain, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, was sarcastic in an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, saying: “I’m sure that when Vladimir Putin was told to ‘cut it out’ he immediately stopped all cyberwarfare activity.” On Friday, Obama told a press conference his administration had not acted during the election because it did not want to appear partisan. It has been reported that the White House expected Hillary Clinton to win.
Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman who will be chief of staff in the Trump White House, has said his organization was not hacked. Obama also said he told Putin to “cut it out” – a month before the first release of hacked Democratic party emails by WikiLeaks. He has promised unspecified retaliation. US intelligence agencies believe Russian or Russian-sponsored actions included the hack of such emails, which were covered extensively in the media.
In July, Trump suggested at a campaign rally that Russia should hack his opponent, Clinton, and reveal the whereabouts of 30,000 “missing” emails from the private server she used while secretary of state under Obama. Gates said Russia had carried out “a thinly disguised, covert operation intended to discredit the American election and to basically allow the Russians to communicate to the rest of the world that our elections are corrupt, incompetent, rigged, whatever, and therefore no more honest than anybody else’s in the world, including theirs”.
The electoral college, in which Trump beat Clinton 306-232 despite losing the popular vote by more than 2.8m ballots, meets to confirm the president on Monday. Prospects of a revolt by sufficient Republican electors to send the choice to the House of Representatives are slim. Gates – who was involved in Trump’s controversial nomination of ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, a close associate of Putin, to be secretary of state – repeated criticisms of the gap between Obama’s “rhetoric” and action on foreign policy. Putin, he said, had acted after seeing “the United States withdrawing from around the world”.
McCain detected “a sign of a possible of unraveling of the world order that was established after world war two that brought in one of the most peaceful periods in the history of the world”. This, he said, was down to “an absolute failure of American leadership”.
From the Democratic side, Donna Brazile, the acting chair of the Democratic National Committee who was the subject of reports based on the hacked emails, appeared to criticise Obama’s decision not to highlight the cyber attack during the election, telling ABC’s This Week: “When I saw the president, I was a little disappointed that, you know, we were under constant attack.”
She added: “The attacks did not stop after Obama spoke to Putin.”
One of the main targets of the cyber-attacks, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, gave his first interview since the election.
“The Russians clearly intervened,” he told NBC. “I think it was distorted. A foreign adversary directly intervened into our democratic institution and tried to tilt the election to Donald Trump.”
Podesta has been critical of the way the FBI handled the cyber-attack and has accused it of putting less emphasis in public on Russian espionage than on its own investigations into Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“I think it had a direct effect on this election,” he said.
Podesta also said it was an “open question” whether Trump advisers colluded with Russia. “It’s very much unknown whether there was collusion,” he said. “I think Russian diplomats have said post-election that they were talking to the Trump campaign.
“Not what Mr Trump knew, but what did ‘Trump Inc’ know and when did they know it? Were they in touch with the Russians? I think those are still open questions.”
Senior Trump advisers Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway rejected such questions. “Even this question is insane,” Priebus told Fox News Sunday. “Of course we don’t interface with the Russians.”
Conway told CBS’s Face the Nation Obama’s intention to retaliate against Russia “seems to be a political response”, due to pressure from the Clinton camp.
In July, Trump suggested that Russia should hack Clinton and reveal the whereabouts of 30,000 “missing” emails.
Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman who will be chief of staff in the Trump White House, has said previously his organization was not hacked.
The electoral college, in which Trump beat Clinton 306-232 despite losing the popular vote by more than 2.8m ballots, will meet to confirm the president on Monday. Prospects of a revolt by sufficient Republican electors to send the choice to the House of Representatives are slim.