On Thursday’s “AC360” on CNN, Counselor to President-Elect Trump, Kellyanne Conway stated that “those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues” are saying part of his reason for issuing sanctions against Russia and expelling diplomats is to box in President-Election Trump, and while this is not how “peaceful transitions” work, and would be “unfortunate,” “we can’t help but think that that’s often true.”

Conway said that some of the actions against Russia are “largely symbolic.” She added, “I think that, you know, all we heard all through the election was Russia, Russia, Russia. whenever it came to anything Donald Trump said or did, it seemed most days, and now, since the election it’s just this fever pitch of accusations and insinuations. And we know why Hillary Clinton lost. … And I don’t believe Vladimir Putin deterred her from competing in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, states that Donald Trump carried for the first time. as a Republican, in decades.”

Conway then stated, “[E]ven those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying part of the reason he did this today was to, ‘box in,’ President-Elect Trump. That would be very unfortunate, if that were the — if politics were the motivating factor. But we can’t help but think that that’s often true. Even the New York Times characterized it as such, that this may be an attempt to box him in, see what he’ll do as president. That’s not the way that peaceful transitions of administrations work in our great democracy.”

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