Democratic Strategist Slams Obama, Says He Had To ‘Protect’ United States From Russian Election Interference
In an interview broadcast on Friday, Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh slammed former President Barack Obama, suggesting that he had failed to “protect” the United States from Russian election interference, The Washington Examiner reports.
Mary Anne Marsh, who once worked as a senior adviser for John Kerry, said that she does not “believe the Obama team and President Obama did enough” to prevent Russian election meddling. The Obama administration should have objected to Mitch McConnell, by issuing a resolution meant to address election interference, she suggested.
“Just because Mitch McConnell refused to sign into a statement — ultimately, any president is the commander in chief and you have to protect our country and our national security.”
The strategist then doubled down, ripping into Obama for, she claims, failing to prevent Russia’s “hacking” of the 2016 election.
“To have Russia, a foreign country, interfere in our election, possibly hacking machines, is unacceptable. You can’t care what anybody thinks about [why] you’re doing it,” she said.
But as CNN pointed out, there is no indication that Russia hacked into voting machines or machines that tallied elections result. This was also confirmed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh is not the first person to blame former President Barack Obama for failing to protect the United States from Russian election interference, however. President Donald Trump has frequently suggested that Obama is to blame, the Washington Examiner notes.
“Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected,” the president recently tweeted.
This opinion is also shared by former Bush White House appointee Scott Jennings. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Jennings argued in an op-ed penned for USA Today that the Mueller report shows “breathtaking” failure by the Obama administration. Jennings argued that the Mueller report demonstrates that Obama “blew it big time” in 2016.
A key takeaway from the Mueller report is that Barack Obama's administration failed the United States with its tepid response to Russian interference in our democracy, writes @ScottJenningsKY https://t.co/7HyZiFeNBe
— CNN Opinion (@CNNOpinion) April 19, 2019
As NBC News reported, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no Trump-Russia conspiracy, but nevertheless established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, namely by using online disinformation campaigns. In his final report, Mueller did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice, but he did not accuse him of the crime either.
As Politico reported in January, heads of various American intelligence agencies have warned of “more aggressive” election meddling in 2020 by Russia, and other foreign powers, urging that lawmakers and officials do everything in their power to protect the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.
