Romney warns Russian cyber attack could 'cripple' US electricity and water supplies as he condemns Trump for refusing to blame Putin and says response must be 'of like magnitude or greater'

• Mitt Romney said Sunday morning that the response to Russia's attack be 'of like magnitude or greater' to their hack that has compromised several U.S. agencies 
• He also slammed President Donald Trump for blaming the cyber attack on China
• 'I was disappointed with the president's comment. But I think we've come to recognize that the president has a blind spot when it comes to Russia,' he said
• Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner said Sunday that Russia got away with a 'big, big haul' from their hack 
• Trump tweeted Saturday claiming that China could be behind the attack, despite Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly blaming Russia the day before
• 'Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is... petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China'

By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER  and KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM- 20 December 2020 

Mitt Romney demanded Sunday that the U.S. response to the Russia cyber attack be 'of like magnitude or greater' as he slams President Donald Trump for claiming the hack was actually from China.

'What Russia has done is put in place a capacity to potentially cripple us in terms of our electricity, our power, our water, our communications,' the Utah senator told CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday morning.

'This is the same thing you can do in a wartime setting, so it's extraordinarily dangerous, and an outrageous affront on our sovereignty and one that's going to have to be met with a strong response,' Romney continued. 'Not just rhetorical, important as that is, but also with a cyber response of like magnitude or greater.'

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, called the Kremlin's takeaway from the cyber attack a 'big haul.'

'So the adversary very probably, as the secretary of state said, Russia, came away with a big, big haul,' Warner said of the extent of the attack to ABC's 'This Week' host Sunday morning. 'And we're still determining how extensive this attack will be. It will take us literally weeks to continue to ferret this out and then potentially months to remediate.'

President Trump has deflected blame from Russia, claiming instead that the attack came from China.

Romney said that Trump has a 'blind spot' for Russia.

'I was disappointed with the president's comment,' Romney told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. 'But I think we've come to recognize that the president has a blind spot when it comes to Russia.'

Republican Senator Mitt Romney said Sunday morning that the response to Russia's attack be 'of like magnitude or greater' to their hack that has compromised several U.S. agencies

Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner said Sunday that Russia got away with a 'big, big haul' from their hack 

Trump has refused to acknowledge that Russia was behind the hack, instead insisting it could have been China

 

Trump tweeted claiming that China could be behind the attack, despite Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly blaming Russia the day before

Trump breaks silence to downplay cyberattack on US government

 

The comments from the Republican senator came after Trump contradicted members of his own administration to suggest that China may be behind the sprawling attack, which compromised key federal agencies.

'The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control,' Trump tweeted on Saturday.

'Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!),' he continued.

'There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA,' the president concluded in a two-part tweet bringing up, again, his yet-to-be-proven claim of widespread voter fraud.

Romney said it was 'embarrassing' when asked by a reporter on Capitol Hill Sunday about reports Trump is considering telling the Justice Department to appoint Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate this election.

'You know, I think it's embarrassing to have the president focus on these matters when so many people are suffering with COVID, when so much is expected of our nation, when we've been through our cyberspace invaded by Russians,' Romney said.

'The President could go out in this last chapter talking about the great success on the vaccine, for which he deserves a great deal of credit,' he continued.

Trump's assertion that China may be behind the hacking spree, runs counter to comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and multiple lawmakers briefed on the matter.

'We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,' Pompeo said on Friday in an interview.

Russia has denied involvement in the attack.

When asked if he agrees with his congressional colleagues' statements on the Russia hack being a 'declaration of war,' Romney was a little less assertive, saying: 'I'll step back to respond to that.'

'You can bring a country to its knees if people don't have electricity, don't have water and can't communicate. And basically, what Russia appears to have done, put themselves in those systems in our country,' the Utah senator told NBC host Chuck Todd.

'They don't need rockets to take those things out,' Romney said of integral infrastructure. 'They potentially have the capability to take out all of those things and doing it remotely at very small cost. So this is a very dangerous and damaging invasion of cyberspace, which has enormous national security implications.'

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, acting Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told Fox News on Thursday: 'And as far as attribution, when you attribute it to somebody, you have got to know it for sure because it's a very — this is almost, I would argue — an act of war, absolutely.'

Democratic Senator Warner said he was also upset with the president deflecting blame from the Kremlin.

'This is extraordinarily serious, and when the President of the United States tries to deflect or is not willing to call out the adversary as we make that attribution, he is not making our country safer,' the Intelligence Committee's top Democrat told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday morning.

He said there is no doubt in his mind that the cyber attack came from Russia. 

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