The Obama administration has said it stands behind United States presidential election results as they“accurately reflect the will of the American people” and believes the polls were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective.
The defense of the U.S. elections by the Obama administration came amidst allegations of hacking from Russia.
“The Kremlin probably expected that publicity surrounding the disclosures that followed the Russian government-directed compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from US political organisations, would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the President—elect,” a senior administration official said.
‘They are the will of the people’
“Nevertheless, we stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people,” the official said in response to a question.
According to the official, the federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting the U.S. electoral process on election day.
“As we have noted before, we remained confident in the overall integrity of electoral infrastructure, a confidence that was borne out on election. As a result, we believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective,” the official said.
“That said, since we do not know if the Russians had planned any malicious cyber activity for election day, we don’t know if they were deterred from further activity by the various warnings the U.S. government conveyed,” he said.
A national victory: Priebus
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus in a memo asserted that the electoral victory of its candidate Donald Trump was truly a national victory.
“Nearly three weeks after the presidential election, the numbers showing President-elect Donald Trump’s commanding victory are coming more fully into focus. He won 306 electoral votes, the most for a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988,” Mr. Priebus said.
“He carried 9 of 13 battleground States. Millions of Americans rallied behind his message of rebuilding our country and disrupting the status quo. This was a truly national victory,” said Mr. Priebus, who has been appointed as the Chief of Staff by Mr. Trump.
“President-elect Donald Trump won over 2,600 counties nationwide, the most since President Reagan in 1984. Additionally, he won over 62 million votes in the popular vote, the highest all-time for a Republican nominee. Voters everywhere wanted Donald Trump as their president,” he said.
Also, Mr. Trump won over 200 counties nationwide that Mr. Obama won in 2012. This was the most counties won by a Republican since 1984, he said.
‘He won in difficult States’
Mr. Priebus said Mr. Trump’s message resonated with voters in historically blue States as he registered the first GOP win in Wisconsin since 1984, Pennsylvania and Michigan since 1988 and Iowa since 1984.
“President-elect Donald Trump campaigned in places he knew Republicans have had difficulty winning — Flint, Michigan, charter schools in inner-city Cleveland, and Hispanic churches in Florida — because he wanted to bring his message of economic empowerment to all Americans,” he said.
