President Obama delayed calling to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his supposed presidential victory due to difficulty scheduling the call, according to an Obama spokesman who said nothing of the State Department’s decision not to congratulate Putin because of widespread, credible reports of voter fraud.
“It’s my understanding that there — that it took him a little while to — that it took a little while to schedule the call,” Principle Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today after announcing that Obama had called the Russian “president-elect.”
The U.S. State Department hesitated to acknowledge Putin as the victor at all. “The United States congratulates the Russian people on the completion of the Presidential elections, and looks forward to working with the President-elect after the results are certified and he is sworn in,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement last week. Nuland also called for “the Russian Government to conduct an independent, credible investigation of all reported electoral violations.”
NOTE: Obama’s congratulatory phone call came on the heels of the 29th anniversary of President Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. It was not, as I originally wrote, on the anniversary itself.
