Mitt Romney: It's Extraordinary Trump Hasn't Mentioned Suspected Russia Cyberattack

The Utah senator compares the situation to a president keeping quiet about a White House flyover by Russian bombers.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Thursday it was extraordinary that President Donald Trump hasn’t said a single word about the cyberattack on U.S. agencies believed to be orchestrated by the Kremlin. Nor has Trump apparently complained to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a tweet posted on Thursday, Romney called White House inaction and silence inexcusable:

“In this setting, not to have the White House aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really quite extraordinary,” Romney also told Olivier Knox on SiriusXM.

The extensive cyberattack hit the U.S. Treasury, Commerce Department, State Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the American stockpile of nuclear weapons. The nation’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the sophisticated attack raises grave concerns about U.S. safety. And officials said it could take months before the full extent of the attack was known.

Romney said the operation exposes the nation’s cyberwarfare readiness as extraordinarily weak, and that Russia thinks “so little of our ability to fight back from a cyber standpoint that they do this with impunity. So our national security is extraordinarily vulnerable,” he added.

When White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany was asked Tuesday about the massive hack, she said the White House was “taking a hard look into this,” CNBC reported.

In contrast, President-elect Joe Biden put nations that would attack the U.S. on notice and said his administration would make cybersecurity a top priority.

“Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation,” Biden added.

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