A retired CIA operations officer says he rejects arguments by Democrats that Russia helped tip the presidential election to Donald Trump with its hacking and release of private Democratic Party emails.
"Democrats who want to deflect attention and blame for their humiliating loss at the hands of the Republicans by saying that it's Russia's fault — I wholeheartedly reject that," Scott Uehlinger, co-host of the podcast "The Station Chief: Insights on Global Intelligence," said Friday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
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"Was Russia perhaps trying to interfere in the election? Yes. I would say that's likely true as Russia has continually tried to interfere in United States to some degree or another."
Uehlinger said Nikita Khrushchev, who led the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, tried to sway presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon because he preferred Kennedy.
"So they always tried to do this. What is unique now is the fact that for once they were able to perhaps have a little bit more of an affect because of the massive moral failings of one of the candidates also known as Hillary Clinton," he said.
"The Russian espionage threat is real . . . it never basically went away at the end of the Cold War. So while I applaud the Obama administration's recent mass expulsions of Russians diplomats, my reaction is this is coming at a very late date at the eleventh hour.
"This should've been done many years ago and the present controversy regarding the hacking of the election is really a lot a mass distraction."
Uehlinger's opinion comes as a declassified intelligence report released Friday said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered "an influence campaign" in 2016.
The report said the "influence campaign" was aimed at the U.S. presidential election with the goal of undermining the democratic process and denigrating Trump's Democratic rival.
"We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump," the report said.
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