Via
(CNN) The partisan warfare over the Mueller report will rage, but one
thing cannot be denied: Former President Barack Obama looks just plain bad. On
his watch, the Russians meddled in our democracy while his administration did
nothing about it.
The Mueller report flatly
states that Russia began interfering in American democracy in 2014. Over the
next couple of years, the effort blossomed into a robust attempt to interfere
in our 2016 presidential election. The Obama administration knew this was going
on and yet did nothing. In 2016, Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice told her staff to
"stand down" and "knock it off" as they drew up plans to
"strike back" against the Russians, according to an account from Michael Isikoff
and David Corn in their book "Russian Roulette: The Inside
Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump".
Why did Obama go soft on
Russia? My opinion is that it was because he was singularly focused on the nuclear deal with
Iran. Obama wanted Putin in the deal, and to stand up to him on
election interference would have, in Obama's estimation, upset that
negotiation. This turned out to be a disastrous policy decision.
Obama's
supporters claim he did stand up to Russia by deploying sanctions after the
election to punish them for their actions. But, Obama, according to the Washington Post,
"approved a modest package... with economic sanctions so narrowly targeted
that even those who helped design them describe their impact as largely
symbolic." In other words, a toothless response to a serious incursion.
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Scott Jennings, a CNN
contributor, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and
former campaign adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell. He is a partner at RunSwitch
Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. The opinions expressed in
this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles
on CNN.
