In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Chuck Todd that he did not think that there was enough of a sense of urgency from either the Obama administration, the incoming Trump administration, or members of Congress on the Russian government-sponsored hacking.
"I think that given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it. maybe part of the problem was it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response," Gates said.
Reuters reported that Republican members of Congress have complained that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has denied their requests for briefings on the classified report on the CIA conclusions of the Russian-sponsored hacking.
Sources have told Reuters that while Congressional committees have not been briefed that congressional leadership has, which is standard.
The Washington Post also reported that the FBI is now in agreement with Director Clapper that the Russians had intervened with the 2016 election.
During President Obama's final press conference of the year on Friday, Obama said that he had spoken with Russian president Vladimir Putin and told him to "cut it out" when it came to hacking.
The White House has not publicly laid out specifics of the retaliation it would take against Russia.