White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cryptically hinted at a press conference Tuesday that action not made public yet has already been taken against Russia. Her comments came in an effort to blunt criticism that the Trump administration has not punished Russia for interfering with the 2016 election.
She claimed that the president “has done a number of things to put pressure on Russia and be tough on Russia,” adding that an incident which took place last week “will be reported in the coming days.”
According to CNN, Sanders further maintained that President Donald Trump has been “tougher on Russia in the first year than Obama was in eight years combined.”
However, these remarks do not reflect reality because while Trump and some Democrats have attacked the Obama administration for failing to speak up on Russia’s actions before the election, it is a fact that Barack Obama took certain steps to reprimand the country. In the last two years of his term, the former president sanctioned a number of Russian individuals and dismissed 35 Russian diplomats.
Obama also confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016, whereas Trump has only demonstrated hesitation to do so. Even after discussing election meddling with Putin, Trump denied Russia was involved in it, saying that he believed Putin when he told him “he didn’t meddle.”
President Trump has also refused to impose sanctions passed by Congress last year. Instead, his Cabinet has somewhat reluctantly spoken out against Moscow.
“It’s important we just continue to say to Russia, ‘Look, you think we don’t see what you’re doing. We do see it, and you need to stop. If you don’t, you’re going to just continue to invite consequences for yourself,’” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this month.
However, everyone now agrees that Russia did interfere in the election. Even Sanders acknowledged it on Tuesday.
“It’s very clear that Russia meddled in the election. It’s also very clear that it didn’t have an impact on the election, and it’s also very clear that the Trump campaign didn’t collude with the Russians in any way for this process to take place,” she said.
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