A senior Obama administration official said that his team "sort of choked" when responding to reports that Russian-linked hackers had tried to influence to the November election.

The Washington Post reported on how, even though Barack Obama learned about the influence of hackers with ties to the Kremlin months before the election, the administration chose not take strong action in part due to assumptions that Hillary Clinton would win.

“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend," senior Obama administration official told The Washington Post. “I feel like we sort of choked.”

Here is how the Obama administration handled reports of Russia's involvement in the 2016 election according to the Washington Post: