Obama cyber chief confirms '''stand down''' order against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016
Instead, Obama officials chose another course of action
after becoming frustrated that Republican leaders on Capitol Hill would not endorse a bipartisan statement condemning Russian interference and fearful that any unilateral action by them would feed then candidate Donald Trumps claims that the election was rigged. They chose a private stern warning by Obama to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in China in early September 2016 to stop his countrys campaign to disrupt the U.S. election.
Obama officials were also worried that a vigorous cyber response along the lines Daniel had proposed could escalate into a full scale cyber war. And, they have since argued, they believed that the presidents warning had some impact, noting as Daniel did in his testimony that they saw some tamping down in Russian probing of state election data systems after Obamas private talk with Putin.