President Trump has taken no action whatsoever. I thinks that irresponsible.

Dan FriedmanJun. 28, 2017 7:03 PM

Alexei Druzhinin/TASS via ZUMA Press

Two Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee tried Wednesday to pick up on President Donald Trumps recent claim that former President Barack Obama failed to act against Russian interference in the 2016 election. But Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department official testifying at the committees hearing on Russianmeddlingin European elections, was having none of it.

Trump has tried to seize on a recent Washington Post report detailing a struggle by top Obama administration officials to respond to Russian efforts tosupport Trump against Hillary Clinton. Despite previously dismissing reports of Russian interference as a hoax, Trump said the report showed that Obama knew of Russian election meddling and did nothing.

At Wednesdays hearing, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) endeavored to back Trumps assertion. Cotton surrendered most of his time for questioning witnesses to instead deliver a statement arguing that Trumps policies on Syria and Afghanistan,along withthe presidents proposal to sharply increase the defense budget, makes him tougher on Russia than Obamadespite Trumps flirtation with rolling back the Russia sanctions that Obama imposed.

In his prepared testimony, Burns, who served as ambassador to NATO and held other posts at the State Department under President George W. Bush, ripped Trump for denying the undeniable fact that Russia interfered in our elections.

Given President Trumps weak and ill-advised views toward Russia, Burns said, it is prudent for the Senate and House to insist on a process of congressional review of Russia sanctions so that President Trump cannot relax them.

Despite that, Risch attempted to hone in on Burns more modest earlier statement, that the Obama administration should have reacted more quickly and vigorously to Russian hacking. Risch asked the former ambassador to confirm that Obama was president when Russian hacking efforts occurred and was aware that this was going on.

Read more:

Former NATO Ambassador Shoots Down Republican Attempts to Blame Obama for the Russian Election Hack - Mother Jones