Obama Hits Russia With Sanctions Over Hacking; NOW Comey Is On Board

President Obama leveled some serious sanctions on Russia today, expelling 35 Russian nationals and sanctioning Russian individuals and entities associated with the hacking of the 2016 election. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI released a report that detailed some of the hacking activities. That report focuses on two intrusions, one in the summer of 2015 and another in the spring of 2016.

It is interesting to note that the FBI is joint author of this report and it certainly implies that the agency was aware of these hacking activities months ago, certainly before the election. Which makes a skeptical guy like myself wonder why the FBI refused to sign on to the joint statement by the DHS and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence put out on October 7th that clearly stated that Russian was hacking the election. Apparently the reason the FBI refused to sign on was because James Comey felt an announcement like that would be interfering in the election. It’s enough to make you want to puke. Now, after Comey has gotten Trump elected, he is allowing the agency to finally admit what it always knew about the Russian hacking.

Needless to say, Republicans continue to pretend that the hacking was not directed by Russia, or that it was perfectly OK even if Russia did it. Paul Ryan basically blamed it all on Obama’s “ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world”. Republican Trent Franks of Arizona took it one step farther, saying, “There’s no suggestion that Russia hacked into our voting systems or anything like that. If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should’ve done.” Perhaps Franks doesn’t realize that much of the hacked material released was misleading and that the hacking also involved a huge propaganda effort of fake news. He probably does but doesn’t care. Meanwhile Trump simply believes that computers are too complex so we should just move on. Trump said, “We ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of [the] computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on.” That’s the kind of insightful analysis we expect from a “real” President.

I am all for a complete investigation of the Russian hacking. But James Comey’s (lack of) responsibility in this election continues to be almost totally ignored. It is well past time for him to account for his actions.