President Barack Obama has been very slow to notice and react to Russia’s aggressive hacking operations, says Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
“The House Intelligence Committee has been urging President Obama for years to take strong action to deter Russia’s worldwide aggression, including its cyber-hacking operations,” Nunes said Thursday.
“Now, with just a few weeks left in office, the President has suddenly decided that some stronger measures are indeed warranted,” Nunes said.
“This kind of indecision and delay helps to explain why now, at the end of Obama’s eight-year presidency, America’s influence has collapsed among both our allies and our enemies,” said Nunes, who is also a member of the president-elect’s Executive Council of the Presidential Transition Team.
On Thursday, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and imposed additional sanctions against Russia. He closed two Russian diplomatic facilities, one in Maryland and the other in New York, and he authorized federal agencies to adopt a cybersecurity protocol first devised in April 2015.