Should President Obama have done more to stop election interference from Russia? | The Tylt
President Obama received intelligence in August 2016 that Vladimir Putin specifically instructed hackers to damage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in hopes of electing Donald Trump. People on both sides of the aisle are demanding to know why Obama didn't do more to prevent or punish the Russian assault on our election. Some say the administration did all they could, given the intense political circumstances, but another frankly admitted: “I feel like we sort of choked.” Do you blame Obama?

President Trump came down hard on Obama for what he characterized as a weak response to Russian hacking...
The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2017
... and accused him of sitting back and doing nothing.
The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2017
Some liberals defended the president, saying he did take some action.
Pardon me, but that's a lie. Obama expelled Russian diplomats, seized their compounds, set severe sanctions in motion for Trump to trigger. https://t.co/wXj5hMLvuM
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 26, 2017
Meanwhile, Obama actually ejected most of the Russian diplomats from the country because of the interference! https://t.co/3yl4tNHWs6
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) June 24, 2017
But even liberal Democrat Adam Schiff called out Obama for not doing more.
Was mistake for Obama Admin to wait two months to tell public what Russia was doing out of fear they would be perceived as affecting result.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 21, 2017
Yes, the politics at the time were intense to navigate: Schiff says the president worried about undermining American faith in the election, as well as appearing to be intervene on Hillary Clinton's behalf. But he still thinks Obama made the wrong choice.
Obama Admin feared 2 things: appearing to help HRC & playing into Trump's rigged narrative. Neither factor outweighed public's need to know: pic.twitter.com/4HM90Y8KLz
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 25, 2017
Trump has gone so far as to accuse Obama of collusion with the Russians.
.@POTUS turns collusion charge on Obama for doing 'nothing' on Russia | Read more: https://t.co/vv3W9NAls8 pic.twitter.com/YJC4EAbOG5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 27, 2017
Others think Obama made the right choice.
Obama got it right on Russia. His job wasn't to prevent Trump's win. It was to preserve faith in our elections: https://t.co/gpwOWVv6nb pic.twitter.com/GYzdwHgfNs
— Slate (@Slate) June 26, 2017
But for those who abhorred Obama's foreign policy choices, this is more proof that he was a weak and ineffectual leader who allowed America to be pushed around.
Russia hacked US because of perceived 'weakness' | https://t.co/wQDEI8pSOa @BarackObama ; Yep. Obama was a weak & anti-American president.
— Kevin Sheahen (@pghdads) June 27, 2017