President Barack Obama said Friday that Vladimir Putin was "not on our team" and expressed concern that some Republicans are siding with the Russian leader on accusations of Moscow's meddling in November's election.
"I said that after the election — we have to remind ourselves that we're on the same team," Obama told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News in an interview to air on "This Week" on Sunday. "Vladimir Putin is not on our team."
The interview came after U.S. intelligence agencies declassified a report saying that Putin himself ordered a hacking and disinformation campaign to influence the election and that he had "a clear preference" for Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The agencies said in the report that they "assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.
"All three agencies agree with this judgment," the document said. "CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence."
The findings were released after an intelligence official met with Trump in New York to discuss Russian hacking.
Of the report, President Obama said: "What is true is that the Russians intended to meddle — and they meddled."
He added that he remained worried about "Republicans or pundits or cable commentators who seem to have more confidence in Vladimir Putin than fellow Americans because those fellow Americans are Democrats.
"That cannot be."
However, Obama made the "team" reference when Stephanopoulos asked whether he was referring to Trump.