Congressional Republican leaders endorsed President Obama’s decision to impose sanctions on Russian intelligence officials in retaliation for cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“Russia does not share America’s interests,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday. “In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world. While today’s action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia.”
Ryan has walked a fine line between agreeing with the U.S. intelligence agencies who assess that Russia was behind the hacks and leaks, which hampered Clinton’s campaign, while emphasizing that President-elect Trump won the election fairly. His support for the sanctions ensures at least a measure of bipartisan support for targeting Russian cyberattacks going forward, despite Trump’s stated disbelief that Russia was behind the hacks.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has promised that Senate lawmakers will conduct bipartisan investigations of the hacks next year, also endorsed the sanctions.
“Sanctions against the Russian intelligence services are a good initial step, however late in coming,” McConnell said. “As the next Congress reviews Russian actions against networks associated with the U.S. election, we must also work to ensure that any attack against the United States is met with an overwhelming response.”
Trump will have the authority to reverse the sanctions, which were issued by executive order, but the GOP leaders’ comments suggest that move could face bipartisan opposition.
“I hope the incoming Trump administration, which has been far too close to Russia throughout the campaign and transition, won’t think for one second about weakening these new sanctions or our existing regime,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the incoming leader of the Senate Democrats, said Thursday. “Both parties ought to be united in standing up to Russian interference in our elections, to their cyberattacks, their illegal annexation of Crimea and other extra-legal interventions.”
The political debate over Russia’s actions in the elections was politically charged throughout the fall as Clinton cited them to accuse Trump of having too-close ties to Russia. That dynamic was exacerbated, after the election, when the CIA told Congress that analysts believed Russia was working with the goal of electing Trump.
Trump will have the authority to rescind the sanctions when he takes office, but Obama’s team thinks that their decision to target Russian intelligence officials will make it politically-difficult for him to do so. “I don’t think it’d make much sense to invite back in Russian intelligence agents,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon. “The officials who were sanctioned were participating in malicious cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and interfering [with] our democratic process so, again: Hypothetically, [Trump] could reverse those sanctions, but I don’t think it’d make a lot of sense.”
Ryan and McConnell argued that Obama’s policies created the conditions for the Russian cyberattacks.
“For eight years the foreign policy of the Obama administration has rested upon an effort to drawdown America’s conventional military capabilities, commitments and forward presence, and increased reliance upon international organizations and rhetoric,” McConnell said. “Aggressive behavior short of a military attack upon our country will only stop when it is deterred.The Russians are not our friends. And clearly the Obama administration has not yet dissuaded them from attempting to breach our cybersecurity systems, or harass our diplomats in Moscow.”
The debate over confirming Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson could be a battleground for fighting over those sanctions, given that some Republicans have urged him to endorse future sanctions on Russia. “Here’s what I’m looking for from the new secretary of state: Do you understand that Russia is a bad actor all over the world?” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said before Christmas. “Are you willing to do something about it? You opposed sanctions in the past. If you oppose sanctions in the future, then you’re letting Russia get away with it, you’re inviting more aggression by Iran and China and North Korea, and I don’t think you have the judgment to be secretary of state.”
