A former top White House aide to President Barack Obama believes Obama should have taken more action to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Former National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon said during an interview with Politico published Monday that there is "no doubt" the Obama administration should have "pushed back harder" against Russia's hacking efforts.
"Given the fact that they were attacking a fundamental element of our democracy," Donilon said, the Obama administration should have been "pushing back harder and publicly" rather than worrying that they would appear to be helping Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign—or that a Clinton victory would end the issue.
That "would have been a better course of action," added Donilon, who "remains an Obama loyalist," Politico noted. He also helped lead the national security transition for the expected Hillary Clinton administration.
Donilon said "no doubt about it" when he was asked if Obama should have publicly pinned the blame on Russia earlier than he did.
Donilon's comments came about two weeks after one former Obama administration official who was involved in White House discussions on Russia told the Washington Post that the administration "choked" on handling Moscow's election meddling.
"It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend," the official said. "I feel like we sort of choked."