President Donald Trump on Wednesday blasted his predecessor and his own attorney general for their responses to Russian election interference in a tweet.
Trump has previously blasted former President Barack Obama for not preventing the meddling, but this marks the first time he's publicly implied that Jeff Sessions isn't doing enough.
In 2016, Obama did confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over election interference while at the G20 summit in China, according to The New York Times whereas Trump, after meeting with Putin in July 2017, said he believed Putin's denial.
"He said he didn't meddle. He said he didn't meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times," Trump told reporters on Air Force One after the meeting, according to CNN. "Every time he sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that.' And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it."
Obama also imposed new sanctions on Russia over "cyberactivities [that] were intended to influence the election, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the U.S. government."
The Trump administration in January declined to impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite Congress nearly unanimously passing a law intended to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 election.
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