Gates: Obama’s Mideast Actions ‘Sent a Signal That the US Was in Retreat’
(CNSNews.com) – Russian President Vladimir Putin may have taken advantage of a perception of U.S. weakness resulting from President Obama’s actions in the Middle East not matching his sometimes “pretty tough” rhetoric, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about allegations of Russian hacking during the presidential election campaign, Gates said it was clear to him the U.S. intelligence community has developed “really reliable information that the Russian government was involved.”
Then, responding to a question about whether Putin may have read Obama’s approach towards him as weakness, Gates offered some hard-hitting criticism of the administration in which he served until retirement in mid-2011 – and of the president.
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