This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.
Yesterday, the man who once fatuously sought to “reset” relations with Russia, who then promised to be more “flexible” after his reelection in making further concessions to the Kremlin and who then dissed Vladimir Putin as the slouching “bored kid in the back of the classroom” finally confronted some of the consequences of his serial mistakes.
President Obama announced deportations, sanctions and other, unspecified penalties for Russia’s alleged cyber-hacking during the recent U.S. election. It remains to be seen whether such belated actions will inflict much of a punishment, let alone constitute a deterrent to further hacking by the Kremlin in the future.
Whatever strategic value Mr. Obama’s retaliation will have is inevitably diminished, however, by his own direct intervention in another nation’s election. To his lasting disrepute, that country was not a hostile power, like Russia. It was our ally, Israel.
This is Frank Gaffney.