President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said he believes Obama should have taken stronger steps to retaliate against Russia for meddling in the 2016 election.
“I do think that given the seriousness of this; given the fact that they were attacking a fundamental element of our democracy, that pushing back harder and publicly I think probably would have been a better course of action, frankly,” Donilon said in an interview with Politico published Monday.
The former national security adviser also said there should’ve been “more aggressive public attribution” that Russia was behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems, as well as other entities.
“I do think that calling this out in a much more aggressive way would have been a better course of action,” Donilon said.
Donilon served as Obama’s national security adviser from 2010 to 2013, and was tapped early on to serve on Hillary Clinton’s transition team should she have won the election.
Following an extensive report from the Washington Post last month on Obama’s response to Russia’s interference, President Trump has blamed his predecessor for not taking aggressive action against Russia when it became apparent the Kremlin was attempting to influence the election.
“By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn’t they stop them?” Trump said on his Twitter last month.
According to the Washington Post, Obama was given a range of actions — from severe to mild — to take against Russia after it became clear to members of the intelligence community the Kremlin was attempting to meddle in the election.
Obama ultimately went with what the Washington Post characterized as a “modest” package, which included economic sanctions, the shuttering of two Russian compounds and removal of 35 diplomats from the U.S.
One former senior Obama administration official told the Washington Post the White House “sort of choked” in its handling of Russia.
