Recently US intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia hacked the US Presidential election and helped Donald Trump in winning the election. Russia attacked the democracy of the US, everyone wonder will the US retaliate for this when they have pro-Russian President in the elect.
But Barack Obama has some other plans. In an interview with National Public Radio that will be aired today, he warned Russia that the US will retaliate for its cyberattacks during the presidential election.
The US president said he was waiting for a final report he has ordered into a range of Russian hacking attacks, but promised there would be a response.
"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections ... we need to take action. And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be."
Last week only, The CIA has judged that the Russians were behind all the cyber attacks, including the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee, and their main aim was to influence the election in Donald Trump’s favor. However, the FBI has not concluded anything yet but they also gave hint that it was intended to favor the Republican contender.
Senators from both parties have called for a congressional inquiry, while Trump has rejected the reports.
The president-elect weighed in on Twitter to ask: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
Obama said that he won't say anything against Moscow till he gets a final report about the incidence but he said the impact of the intervention was clear. He said, “does not in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately – that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign”.
He added: “There’s no doubt that it contributed to an atmosphere in which the only focus for weeks at a time, months at a time were Hillary’s emails, the Clinton Foundation, political gossip surrounding the DNC.”
“Elections can always turn out differently,” he said. “You never know which factors are going to make a difference. But I have no doubt that it had some impact, just based on the coverage.”
President Obama would hold a press conference in Washington on Friday at 2.15pm ET (7.15pm GMT) before leaving for his last annual family vacation in Hawaii as President.
