Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., believes President Obama should have done more to tell the American public about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election before votes were cast.
Schiff said on CNN Sunday the revelation in a Friday report that Obama knew in August of 2016 that the Russian government was directing an influence campaign on the election shows more should have been done to inform the public.
“The Obama administration should have done a lot more when it became clear that not only was Russia intervening but it was being directed at the highest levels of the Kremlin,” Schiff said.
He said the Obama administration appeared to be worried about putting its finger on the scales of the election in favor of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, or playing into Trump’s narrative that the election was rigged.
But, none of that should have been more important than telling the American people about an attempt to influence the election.
“The American people need to know and I don’t think it was enough to tell them about the election,” he said.
However, Schiff slammed President Trump for his comments criticizing Obama for not doing more to stop it because of Trump’s rhetoric around the Russian interference.
Trump famously — possibly jokingly — told the Russian government to hack into Clinton’s emails during the campaign, and often praised Wikileaks for releasing more and more emails that were hacked from the server of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. Schiff said that gives him no room to complain about Obama’s lack of action.
“For Donald Trump, who openly egged on the Russians to hack into these emails (to criticize Obama) is a bit like someone who received stolen property blaming the police for not stopping the theft,” he said.
