President Obama appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning and covered a variety of topics ranging from racism to North Korea and the Sony hacks.
Obama repeated his earlier statements about the hacks, implying again that Sony made the wrong call by canceling screenings of “The Interview.”
“The Boston Marathon suffered an actual grievous attack that killed and maimed a number of people and that next year we had as successful a Boston Marathon as we’ve ever had,” Obama told host Candy Crowley.
“Sometimes this is a matter of setting a tone and being very clear that we’re not going to be intimidated by some cyberhackers. I expect all of us to remember that and to operate on that basis going forward.”
Crowley asked if he thought the Sony hacks were “an act of war” by North Korea. Kim Jong Un had previously said he would consider the opening of “The Interview” to be an act of war that would “not be tolerated.”
“No, I don’t think this was an act of war. I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive,” Obama replied. “We take it very seriously and we will respond proportionately.”
Crowley also tied North Korea into Obama’s recent decision to normalize relations with Cuba.
She asked if North Korea would would go back on the U.S. terror list and if Cuba would be taken off it.
Obama did not directly answer, but said that both countries would go through the process to see if they meet the “very clear criteria” that puts them on the list.
“We don’t make those judgments just on the news of the day. We look systematically at what’s been done,” Obama replied.
Crowley questioned that statement saying that North Korea’s actions make it seem very obvious and that it would be hard to have a relationship with Cuba if they were still considered a terror threat. Obama continued to deflect the comments.
