Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Sunday that Russia's alleged cyberattack on U.S. federal agencies and companies is a "wake up call," and he argued the U.S. "will have to really rethink our
MILITARY and national security readiness when it comes to cyberspace because this is the warfare of the future."
He told CNN's Jake Tapper during an appearance on
State of the Union that he believes
Russia "acts with impunity with regards to these cyberattacks" for three reasons. The first is that
Moscow doesn't think the U.S. has "the capacity to respond in like measure" and secondly "they also recognize that our defense is inadequate." Finally, he said, they've learned that "what will come from the White House" in response to such activity "will not be the kind of rhetoric which would be jarring."
On that last point, Romney said
President Trump has "a blind spot when it comes to Russia," noting he wasn't surprised by Trump's remarks on the matter Saturday, in which the president suggested
Beijing, rather than Moscow, may have been behind the attack. While there will need to be a full investigation into the
Hack, Romney pointed out that the intelligence community strongly believes the
Kremlin was the perpetrator.