President-elect Trump responded to the news Thursday that President Obama issued sanctions against Russia for its cyberattacks.
“It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” Trump said in a statement. “Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”
On Thursday, Obama said: “I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election. These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia was behind the hacking during the election of staffers’ email accounts at the Democratic National Committee and of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.
The White House said a senior member of Trump transition team was notified about the sanctions earlier Thursday.
On Wednesday, before Obama’s announcement, Trump said of sanctions against Russia: “I think we ought to get on with our lives.”
