‘We Can Do Stuff to You’: Obama Warns Russia of America’s Response to Hacking
During President Barack Obama’s last news conference of the year, he addressed reports that Russia was involved in hacking to influence the election to benefit President-elect Donald Trump.
Explaining his personal response prior to the election , he stated his goal was to make sure the “election went off without a hitch” and “not feed any sense in the public that somehow tampering had taken place with the actual process of voting.”
However, when it came to how he would respond to Russia over the cyberattacks, his answer may have left a lot to be desired for many.
“Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us because we can do stuff to you,” POTUS stated.
He added, “But it is also important for us to do that in a thoughtful methodical way. Some of it we do publicly. Some of it we will do in a way that they know but not everybody will.”
There was at least some immediate criticism of Obama’s line, and somewhat surprisingly, it was from the left.
"We can do stuff to you." Come ON, Mr. President! Jesus fucking Christ.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 16, 2016
Obama: "We can do stuff to you"–message to Putin & Russia. Not quite, "Go ahead, make my day."
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 16, 2016
Watch the video above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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