On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that while President Obama’s actions towards Russia are “revenge” on President-Elect Donald Trump because “There’s no better way left for Obama to undermine the legitimacy of Trump than to imply…that Trump won because of this.” Russia was the source of the emails released by WikiLeaks and the US should respond strongly to that.
Krauthammer said that Obama’s actions are “largely political,” adding, “but that doesn’t mean that the Russians weren’t behind it, and that the US ought to make a strong response. When you heard Assange say, there were no — we did not receive our information from a state actor, that’s completely meaningless. All they have to have is a single cutout between the Russians and them. and they can say that. Of course it came from the Russians. I’m sure it’s all in the intel. I think it would be a mistake for us to release this.”
Krauthammer continued, “But the Trump people are absolutely right. This is a president who has appeased the Russians from day one. He cancels the missile defense system as he comes into office, Obama did. He then lies down, does nothing about Syria, essentially nothing about Ukraine. Does nothing about all the trespasses of the Russians vis-à-vis the US. They learned about the hacking 18 months before today. They do nothing at a time when it would actually have an effect. And then, all of a sudden, with a month to go, he decides to do this.”
He concluded, “The timing and the severity of what he did is clearly — this is Obama’s revenge on Trump for the birther thing. … There’s no better way left for Obama to undermine the legitimacy of Trump than to imply — you’re absolutely right, there’s no connection to the actual election, but most Americans think this is about the election, to imply that Trump won because of this. That’s what all of this is about, and that’s why I think that Trump is right in protesting this. Nonetheless, we as a country can’t take our example from Obama, as he did for 18 months. We can’t let it go. And we should punish should have the Chinese [for the OPM hack] and we should next time.”
(video via Real Clear Politics)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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