Donald Trump’s top aide, Kellyanne Conway, on Monday suggested the president-elect would take another look at the retaliatory measures the U.S. took against Russia in response to the country’s meddling in the U.S. presidential race.
“I predict that President Trump will want to make sure that our actions are proportionate to what occurred, based on what we know,” she told USA Today’s Capital Download when asked if she thought the president-elect might consider rolling back some of the steps President Obama ordered against Russia.
Conway said the president’s actions in response to the Russian meddling did seem to be a “disproportionate response.”
“A punitive one by President Obama in the instance of the alleged Russian hacking,” she said, “because he expelled 35 Russian operatives and when China hacked 21 million records of Americans … it was basically a little bit shrug-shouldered.”
Obama recently announced sanctions against Russian intelligence organizations and top officials, expelled 35 officials from the U.S., and shuttered two U.S. facilities used by Moscow.
Last week, an intelligence community report showed that intelligence agencies believe Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other organizations and engaged in a propaganda effort to help Trump win the White House.
Conway was critical of House and Senate Democrats calling for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the Russian hacks, although some Republicans have also pushed for such a commission, such as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
{mosads}”It’s curious and a little bit humorous that Democrats right now would be talking about anything bipartisan … given how they have vowed to obstruct everything we do,” she said.
Conway added that there is a “great deal of information out there” already regarding the Russian hacking when asked if she thinks the issue has been thoroughly investigated.
“I do find it to be very ironic that the uptick in and the hue-and-cry of ‘investigation’ and ‘information’ has occurred after the election results are in,” Conway said.
“The fact is, the Democrats became super-duper interested in this entire issue after the election did not go the way they, quote, wanted,” she said, “and the way they expected.”
She reiterated that Russian hackers were not able to breach U.S. voting systems or tamper with ballots.
“And that’s very clear in the report, that they were not successful,” she said.
Conway said Americans voted the way they did because they thought Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, wasn’t honest or trustworthy and were looking for change, among other reasons.