Jennifer Palmieri's comments came after the release of an investigation by The Washington Post revealed how former President Barack Obama and his aides wrestled with when to release the highly sensitive intelligence, as they feared being accused of trying to influence the election themselves. Palmieri: Obama officials 'made the best decisions they could' on Russia hacking

Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton's former communications director, said on Friday that the Obama administration "made the best decisions they could" when deciding when to publicly disclose evidence that Russian officials tried to interfere with the 2016 election.

Palmieri's comments came after the release of an investigation by The Washington Post revealed how former President Barack Obama and his aides wrestled with when to release the highly sensitive intelligence, because they feared being accused of trying to influence the election themselves.


"And you know, I know that the Obama White House is in a very difficult situation, and they made the best decisions they could," Palmieri, who previously served as Obama's White House communications director, said on MSNBC.

"We call those 51-49 decisions. I'm sure you experienced them," she said to host Nicolle Wallace, who served as a communications director for the George W. Bush White House.

"We called them 'crummy and crummier,'" Wallace joked.

Clinton has widely blamed Russian officials' meddling — including the hack of the Democratic National Committee and of her campaign chairman, John Podesta — for her election loss, but she has not publicly and directly criticized Obama for not earlier disclosing the interference attempts.

Palmieri credited the White House's reluctance as ultimately being in the national interest.

"I think they did it in the best interest of the country," Palmieri said, adding that Democrats should have sounded a greater alarm at the hacks and that the news media should have covered the interference more thoroughly.