Jennifer Palmieri, a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Warning signs flash for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina MORE's presidential campaign, says in a new interview that she pressed reporters last year to take Russian election meddling seriously.

But "no one in the press really cared" at the time, she told HuffPost's "Candidate Confessional" podcast.

"It was so surreal," she said. "I felt as if I had been catapulted into another dimension where we would have these surreal conversations about the Russians and Trump and Mike Flynn and Carter Page and Donald Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE Jr. saying, ‘We’re really invested in Russia.'"

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Instead, Palmieri said, journalists seemed more interested in covering leaked emails coming out of the Democratic National Committee and the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server.

Palmieri, who served as communications director for Clinton's campaign, said she and Jake Sullivan, a former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, met off the record with major television news networks about the importance of Russian interference in the race.

"Jake Sullivan ... and I went around to all the networks during the convention to do a briefing for them on Russia, about why they needed to take this more seriously," Palmieri recalled.

News outlets did cover efforts to hack the DNC, as well as the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia.

But Palmieri said that news coverage seemed to refocus on Clinton's email scandal and now-President Trump's campaign trail behavior, which ultimately distracted from Russia's meddling reports.