Long time Democratic operative turned Fox News contributor Donna Brazile made an appearance on "The Daily Briefing" with Dana Perino on Friday. The two discussed Russia meddling into the 2016 presidential election. And, according to Brazille, President Barack Obama did everything he could to prevent meddling from taking place.
"Donna, I want to get your thoughts on the big headline out of the report. We'll do that just a second," Perino said. "On impeachment, do you think tap the brakes on that? Full bore ahead?"
"I think that's premature to talk about what the next step is," Brazille responded. "I mean, we're just getting this report, we're still digesting it, we haven't really fully come to understand all of the background, all of the information that went into it. Before we can move into what I call the 'impeachment gear,' perhaps we should just dive into this report."
"Because I think you said, on Monday or Tuesday, on 'The Five' with us, you were mostly interested, not interested in President Trump, but about Russia itself," Perino said. "And I feel like those headlines are kind of, there's a lot here. Russia was very much trying to intervene and it was much more intrusive than we might have thought."
"This should be a wake up call to the American people, that we had a foreign power, another government, that was interfering in our election. Yes, communicating with individuals associating with the Trump campaign, perhaps there was no conspiracy or any recollectional contracts signed but the bottom line is, how do we protect our democracy?" Brazille asked. "How do we make sure this does't happen again?...Director Mueller and his team did a fantastic job...Even with redactions you can get the picture that our country is under attack."
"So a question on that," Perino interjected. "Do you think the Obama administration, when they were in charge, should have done more to prevent that intrusion?"
"I think they did everything they could without sounding all of the alarm bells," Brazille said. In her mind, if Obama would have done more to prevent meddling he would have been accused of attempting to help former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"He was in a box," Brazile said of Obama. "Perhaps President Trump is in a box."
"It's time we step out of the box and figure out what we do now to prevent foreign influence from meddling in our elections. Last time it was Russia. Perhaps Russia will do it again. Who knows what other foreign country will try to do it," Brazille said.
According to Fox News' Ed Henry, the Obama administration attempted to "sound the alarm" on meddling but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not want to put out a joint statement on the matter because it was the middle of the campaign season. Perino pointed out that a joint statement would have done nothing to prevent the issue from taking place.
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