Obama: Reagan Would 'Roll Over in His Grave' at Voters Backing Putin

President Barack Obama said Friday that former President Ronald Reagan would "roll over in his grave" because surveys show that more than a third of Republican voters approve of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Over a third of Republican voters approve of Vladimir Putin, the former head of the KGB," Obama told reporters at his final news conference of the year at the White House. "Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave.

"How did that happen?" he asked. "It happened in part because for too long everything that happens in this town, everything that's said is seen through the lens of 'Does this help or hurt us relative to Democrats or relative to President Obama?'

"Unless that changes, we're going to continue to be vulnerable to foreign influence — because we've lost track of what it is that we're about and what we stand for," he said.

Obama's comments came as he said publicly for the first time that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, though he declined to say whether the breaches swayed the election to President-elect Donald Trump.

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