By Sandy Wells
KABC/Los Angeles News
The hacking scandal is getting a big play in Washington with Trump pitted against the intelligence community over its claim that Russian hackers tried to change the outcome of the US election in favor of the Republican. Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who was an advisor for the Trump team until resigning today, says it is all getting overblown.
If they had real elections in Russia and Gorbachev were running against Putin, and I rather imagine if Gorbachev won, there’d be a lot of parties in Washington and in other parts of the country, so I don’t think this is that big a deal.”
Woolsey that Russia has been using “disinformation” in an effort to meddle in the affairs of other countries since the 1940s.
However, when it comes to cyber-security overall, Woolsey says the U.S. must step up the pressure on Russia.
“We have to do a much better job than we’re doing now of building resilience into our system. They could go after our electric grid the way they went after Ukraine – that would not create a good situation. I think what we have to do is something that will really cause them serious economic problems and make them say, ‘Stop what you’re doing, let’s work together.’ ”
Woolsey was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show with Doug McIntyre and Rob Marinko.