Russian election meddling, which a whole lot of people still blame for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, wasn’t talked about very much until Donald Trump won. First was the narrative that the election was “hacked” — Green Party candidate Jill Stein, learning that voting machines weren’t linked to the internet, surmised instead that Russian agents sneaked into polling places with floppy disks and reprogrammed the voting machines.

Eventually, hacking became meddling, which then became Russians buying Facebook ads showing a devil-horned Clinton preparing to box Jesus and Bernie Sanders in a Speedo doing muscle poses.

There really has never been a satisfactory explanation of why the Obama administration didn’t seem to do anything about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, seeing as it happened on their watch. We learned in 2018 that Obama’s cyber chief was ordered to “stand down” against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016.

Now the New York Times is suggesting that it was Republicans to blame for any Russian election interference, according to a new Senate report:

Erin Schaff reports:

The report painted the Obama administration as moving too slowly and indecisively to address the interference or to counter it, and it cited the “heavily politicized environment” in American politics in 2016 as one factor preventing a more forceful response.

Though separate from its central findings, the mention of Republican congressional leaders’ role in forestalling a stronger response was notable for a report from a Republican-led committee.

So Republicans pounced … on themselves?

Trending

Obama did say he told Putin to “cut it out.”

It must be nice to be Barack Obama and be able to retire to your seaside vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard with no accountability whatsoever.

Related:

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Tags: Barack Obamaelection interferenceheadlineMitch McConnellnew york timesrepublicansRussiaspin