Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) said Friday that the Obama administration bore some responsibility for the Russian interference campaign in the 2016 election, suggesting its weak response to North Korea's hack of Sony Pictures emboldened the Kremlin.
Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has been one of the most outspoken members of Congress about Russian meddling efforts and the investigation of possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.
"I do think though that, in fairness, some of the responsibility is also attributed to the Obama administration for not establishing a more forceful deterrent," he said at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I think it goes back to the Korean hack of Sony in which there was a minimal response. I think that others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention."
Schiff said cyber attacks have a level of "plausible deniability" but while the U.S. is good at determining who committed an attack, "you don't need to show your hand as long as you can establish a deterrent."
Schiff said the response to North Korea's Sony attack should have been "informational," noting the regime there loathes South Korea publicizing the atrocities committed by its neighbor. President Barack Obama imposed targeted sanctions on leading North Korean officials in response to the devastating hack, which wiped out Sony's servers.
Obama's team struggled in its response to Russian's interference efforts during the 2016 campaign. A Washington Post story about how the Obama White House handled the situation reported the administration was concerned about making the Russian story more public for fear of giving credence to Trump's claim the election was rigged.
"With the Russians, we should have called them out much earlier," Schiff said. "While I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration—they didn't want to be seen as meddling—the American people had a right to know what was going on."