Obama’s Russia sanctions doubted
Spokesman: Why this magnitude?
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming press secretary questioned Sunday whether the Obama administration’s sanctions after concluding Russia interfered in the election were out of proportion. “Why the magnitude of this?” Sean Spicer said on ABC.
The White House announced last week that it was levying sanctions against Russian intelligence services and expelling 35 Russian officials from the U.S. in response to meddling in the presidential election. It also blocked Moscow’s access to two compounds it owns in the United States.
“Is that response in proportion to the actions taken? Maybe it was; maybe it wasn’t, but you have to think about that,” Spicer said. “That’s nothing that we haven’t seen in modern history and when we look back.”
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have alleged that Russia’s two largest intelligence agencies conducted a campaign of cyberattacks that were aimed, in part, at interfering in the November election.
Trump has expressed skepticism that Russia is behind the cyberattacks, and he reiterated those doubts Saturday.
“It could be somebody else,” Trump said before the New Year’s Eve party at his Florida resort. “And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”
When pressed to describe what he knew, Trump replied: “You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
Trump has said he will receive an intelligence briefing on the hacking in coming days, and Spicer said the president-elect would reserve judgment until learning more.
Republicans in Congress have said they intend to hold hearings into election hacking by the Russian intelligence services. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the sanctions were “overdue.”
“Russia does not share America’s interests. In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world,” Ryan said in a statement, signaling that he will not be in full alignment with the Trump administration on the issue.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on ABC that the intelligence community has gathered “solid” evidence to support its conclusions that Russia was behind the election hacking.
“It’s indeed overwhelming and the president-elect, as you know, also said that he knows things that other people don’t know,” Schiff said. “He needs to stop talking this way. If he’s going to have any credibility as president, he needs to stop talking this way. He needs to stop denigrating the intelligence community. He’s going to rely on them.”