Fmr. Obama State Dept. Spox Defends Obama’s Action on Russia: ‘We Named and Shamed Russia’

RUSH EXCERPT:

HARF: "My former boss and others confronted Russia repeatedly over this and we did take steps publicly before the election. We came out and named and shamed Russia so voters would know what was going on and we eventually expelled dozens of people."
HEMMER: "I don’t quite recall that. Refresh my memory specifically what was said."
HARF: "In terms of publicly? The Obama Administration released before the election the assessment that Russia was meddling. It referenced hacking. A lot of that was overshadowed the exact day by the access Hollywood tape if you remember. The bigger point here is, bill, we can have a legitimate debate about why we didn’t do more. There were good reasons. We were concerned about Russian escalation and concerned about being partisan. We also had a Republican candidate at the time, Donald Trump, who was on this campaign speeches saying Russia, please interfere, please hack Hillary Clinton and please release those emails. So we were confronting a candidate who was actually encouraging Russia."