Obama admits underestimating impact of Russian hacking

President Barack Obama on Sunday admitted that he "underestimated" the impact misinformation and hacking can have on democracies, a remark that follows an intelligence report on Russian meddling in the US presidential election.


In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Obama also warned his Republican successor Donald Trump, who takes office in less than two weeks, about the difference between governing and campaigning, saying the president-elect won't be able to run his presidency "the way you would manage a family business."

The interview, which was taped Friday, took place the same day that US intelligence agencies released an unprecedented report saying Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign of hacking, leaking, and media manipulation aimed at undermining the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boosting Trump.

Although Obama said he was not taken in by Russian hostility to the United States, "I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation for cyber hacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating."
 [i24news.tv/AFP]
8/1/17