Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Reuters reports: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday raised more questions about Russia’s reported role in cyber attacks on U.S. political parties and individuals as well as the timing of the White House’s response under President Barack Obama. “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House waite so long to act? Why did they only …

NBC News reports: U.S. intelligence officials now believe with “a high level of confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked …

Mediaite reports: During an interview on CNN today, Republican National Committee spokesperson Sean Spicer essentially blamed Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta for Russians hacking his email, stating that if it weren’t for him and others behaving badly none of the hacking would have occurred. Speaking to host Wolf Blitzer, Spicer was asked about the CIA’s assessment that Russia intervened in …

Mediaite reports: Republican California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, best known for his stridently pro-Russian foreign policy and derided by critics as “Putin’s favorite congressman,” went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to explosive results Tuesday. The interview immediately turned contentious when host Joe Scarborough started by asking Rohrabacher why the United States was doing nothing while Russia and Syria slaughtered the Syrian people. …

Business Insider reports: President-elect Donald Trump has picked Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, his team confirmed Tuesday morning. The secretary of state nomination comes after weeks of speculation and numerous rumored candidates. “His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State. He will promote regional stability and …

Via Mediaite: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest fielded a lot of questions today on reports of Russian interference in the election. “You didn’t need a security clearance,” he said, “to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyber activity.” Earnest even said of Donald Trump, “He called on Russia to hack his opponent… so he certainly had a pretty good …

Politico reports: Hillary Clinton’s top political adviser John Podesta said the campaign is supporting an effort by members of the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing on foreign intervention in the presidential election. “The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in a statement Monday. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution …

The Hill reports: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday blamed FBI Director James Comey for Hillary Clinton’s loss in the presidential election. “Comey helped [President-elect Donald] Trump significantly,” Reid said in an interview with CNN. “A week before the election, he came out with this, ‘Oh, we found some more emails,’ and, as a result of that, we …

Politico reports: Ambassador John Bolton claimed Sunday that hacks during the election season could have been “a false flag” operation — possibly committed by the Obama administration itself. In an interview with Fox News’ Eric Shawn, Bolton questioned why FBI Director James Comey said during the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server, there was no direct evidence found of foreign …

NBC News reports: Reince Priebus vehemently denied that the Republican National Committee had been hacked alongside its Democratic counterpart as part of what the CIA concluded was a Russian attempt to influence the outcome of the United States election in Donald Trump’s favor. “Number one, the RNC was not hacked. I don’t know of any employees, on any of their …

The Hill reports: Russia interfered in the U.S. elections to get revenge against Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. ambassador to the Kremlin said Sunday. Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Donald Trump win the presidency to hurt Clinton. “Let’s remember that Vladimir …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway on Sunday said the president-elect “absolutely respects” the intelligence community. “He’s made very clear he’s going to put his own people in there as well,” she added on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” Conway noted that Trump has said the notion that Russia intervened in the election to help him win the presidency …

Yahoo News reports: Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the relationship between Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s leading candidate for secretary of state, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “matter of concern” to him. In an interview with Fox News, the former GOP nominee and chairman of the Senate armed services committee said, “I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s …

Politico reports: President-elect Donald Trump called reports that the Russian government endeavored to help him win last month’s presidential election “ridiculous” and “just another excuse” in an interview that aired Sunday morning, once again questioning the intelligence community he will take charge of when he is inaugurated next month. Trump told “Fox News Sunday” that he suspected that Democrats are …

The Hill reports: President-elect Donald Trump has selected Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his nominee for secretary of State, NBC News reported Saturday. Tillerson had reportedly jumped to the front of the pack of candidates in recent days, despite not being mentioned on shortlists as recently as last week. Critics have already called into question Tillerson’s ties to Russian …

The Guardian reports: US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in last month’s presidential election to boost Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, according to reports. A secret CIA assessment found that Russian operatives covertly interfered in the election campaign in an attempt to ensure the Republican candidate’s victory, the Washington Post reported, citing officials briefed on the …

The Times Of Israel reports: The wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman performed a Holocaust-themed ice skating show on a popular reality television show Saturday night. Tatiana Navka, a former Olympic figure skating medalist and wife of Putin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov, donned striped concentration camp uniforms complete with yellow stars of David, to compete for top honors on …

Via Raw Story: Rachel Maddow was so troubled by President-Elect Donald Trump’s offer to lieutenant General Michael Flynn she scrapped the script to level with her audience. “At this point in the show, I had something else we were going to cover, by scrapped it, because there’s a thing I feel like I need to say about the Mike Flynn …

Politico reports: President Barack Obama urged his successor Thursday to stand up for American values in his dealings with Russia and avoid taking a more practical, “realpolitik approach.” “I’ve sought a constructive relationship with Russia but what I have also been is realistic in recognizing there is some significant differences in how Russia views the world and how we view …

The Week reports: Adm. Michael Rogers, head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, spoke at a Wall Street Journal forum on Tuesday, and much of the focus of his discussion with WSJ Deputy Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Blumenstein was about joining government and business to fight the scourge of cyber crime. The number of hackers is “so large …