In wake of DNC email breach posted by Wikileaks, president says Russians regularly hack US government, private systems
President Barack Obama said it was “possible” that Russia was trying to influence the US presidential vote, after experts attributed the Democratic National Committee emails hack to the Russians.
The hacked emails, posted by Wikileaks Friday, suggested the Democratic National Committee was favoring Hillary Clinton over her primary rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, despite pledging impartiality. Democratic party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned over the incident after the leaked emails prompted primary runner-up Sanders to call for her to step down.
Clinton will face Donald Trump in November.
“I know that experts have attributed this to the Russians,” Obama said, according to Reuters.
“What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems,” he added.
Obama told NBC News that he can’t say what the motives were in leaking thousands of DNC emails. But he said Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Trump has been covered favorably by the Russian media.
“What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can’t say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin,” Obama said.
Asked whether Russia could have leaked the emails to help Trump, Obama said, “Anything’s possible.
“I think that Trump has gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia,” added the president.
Trump has often praised Putin, calling him a “strong leader.”
Trump told The New York Times last week that he would decide whether to protect America’s NATO allies against Russian aggression based on whether those countries “have fulfilled their obligations to us,” hinting that he might pivot away from the decades-old pact.
Some Republicans opposed to Trump have also sought to cast him as pro-Putin, a position that would put him at odds with both Republican and Democratic foreign policy and also diverge from the current GOP platform adopted at that party’s convention last week.
A Russian presidential spokesman accused US politicians of being “paranoid.”
As reported by The Times of Israel