Considering the "unprecedented" nature of Russia's hacking during this election cycle to distract and confuse America's democratic process – and the "magnitude" of it – there has been a lack of "urgency" by the U.S. to get to the bottom of it, former CIA Director Robert Gates said Sunday.
"People seem to have been somewhat laid back about it," Gates told host Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Gates speculated a detailed investigation might have given pause to a U.S. response.
"Maybe part of the problem was that it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response," Gates added.
"Attribution is a challenge, but it seems pretty clear to me that they’ve developed really reliable information that the Russian government was involved."
Gates, who served under eight administrations, including President Barak Obama as secretary of defense, spoke more broadly about U.S. foreign policy, claiming Obama's "actions have not matched his rhetoric" – the latter of which "has been pretty tough" compared than the former.
"Putin saw the United States withdrawing from around the world," Gates told Todd.
"It sent a signal the U.S. was in retreat. … And Putin felt he could take advantage of that."
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