Donald Trump looking into ways to stop Russian meddling: White House

Representational image

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has been looking at ways to prevent Russian meddling into the internal affairs of the US, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday, adding the previous President Barack Obama was responsible for the meddling, if any, and not the Trump administration.

The White House official said, "The US is looking at a number of different ways that we can put pressure (on Russia). This President has been much tougher on Russia than his predecessor.

Let`s not forget that this happened under Obama. It didn`t happen under President Trump.

If you want to blame somebody for past problems, then you need to look at the Obama administration.

"Talking about Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) staff, who has not been granted any additional authority by the President to confront Russian cyber intrusion, interference with the US` election systems, the Press Secretary replied, "Nobody is denying him the authority.

"She said 40 million dollars was given to the Global Engagement Center to begin providing immediate support to private and public partners that expose and counter Russian and Chinese propaganda and disinformation.

Admiral Rogers should go and confront Russian intrusion at the source, the official said, adding the President was looking at all of the different causes and ways that we could prevent it.

She argued that blame lied with the Obama administration for allowing the attacks to happen on its watch and that there were ongoing conversations on this topic at the National Security Council, but no presidential-level meetings scheduled.

Talking about Parkland school shooting, Sanders said the President still supported "raising the age limit to 21 for the purchase of certain firearms".

"The President is going to be meeting with bipartisan lawmakers tomorrow, and that will be another one of those topics discussed, and we`ll have further specific policy announcements later this week."