Article snippet: Former presidential election. Rice in an exclusive interview on "This Week" Sunday was asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about Putin's recent statement that the Russian government didn't meddle in the U.S. election although patriotic Russians might have done so. "Is that as close to an admission of guilt we're going to get form President Putin?" Stephanopoulos said. “I don't know what we'll hear from President Putin, George. But frankly, he's lying," Rice said. "The reality is, as all of our intelligence agencies have come together to affirm with high confidence, the Russian government at the highest levels was behind the very unprecedented effort to meddle in our 2016 presidential election." “We need to understand exactly how and why that happened and whether or not there's any evidence to suggest that there were those on the American side who facilitated that meddling,” she added. Rice also said NATO helps further Putin’s objective of weakening the European alliance. In his meeting with European leaders on his recent trip abroad, Trump drew attention by not explicitly endorsing NATO's Article 5, which requires all nations in the alliance to come to the defense of any member that is attacked. “That is exactly what Vladimir Putin wants,” Rice said. “Because Putin's interests, as he actually reaffirmed just on Friday, is to see NATO weakened and ultimately destroyed. And when the United States, the most important player in NATO, ca... Link to the full article to read more