President Obama’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia and expel their intelligence officials is politically motivated, a Wisconsin lawmaker said Friday.
Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., said Obama’s decision on Thursday to expel 35 Russians intelligence agents for overstepping their diplomatic bounds into intelligence affairs isn’t tough. The sanctions and the expulsions might feed a congressional call for getting tough with Russia, but it seems like Obama is acting politically instead of presidentially, Duffy said in an interview on CNN.
“I’m opposed to Russia hacking or China hacking, whether it’s personal data or government employees, we should hold all of them to account,” Duffy said. “Why then, is the question, is Barack Obama so engaged now in this Russia issue when he hasn’t had a backbone in the last eight years?”
Duffy said Obama told voters during the election that the vote between President-elect Trump and Hillary Clinton was also a referendum on his policies and his presidency.
Now that the party lost in the election, Obama may be playing up the role of Russian hacking into the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta in order to downplay the defeat, Duffy said.
“This does have the air of politics and Mr. Obama is trying to diminish Mr. Trump’s win” by blaming Russia for the defeat, he said.
