Full Interview Airs Tomorrow on “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd”
DECEMBER 17, 2016 — In a Sunday exclusive interview airing tomorrow on “Meet the Press,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he thinks U.S. leaders “seem to have been somewhat laid back about” Russian hacking.
Asked by moderator Chuck Todd whether there has been enough of a sense of urgency from the Obama administration and congressional leaders, Gates replied: “No. I think that given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it. And maybe part of the problem was that it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response.”
See below for the transcript of the exchange; watch the preview here: http://nbcnews.to/2i1gx4e.
Tune in to tomorrow’s “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” for more with former Secretary Gates, as well as a Sunday exclusive with former Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
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CHUCK TODD:
Do you think there’s been enough of a sense of urgency about this from the Obama administration, from congressional leaders, Democratic and Republican, from Donald Trump?
ROBERT GATES:
No. I think that given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it. And maybe part of the problem was that it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response. Attribution is a challenge but it seems pretty clear to me that they’ve developed really reliable information that the Russian government was involved.
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