Why did Obama wait until now to punish Russia for hacks? (Hint: This looks bad)

"The Russians hacked our political systems?!?!? How did this happen???"

"Well, they do have those spy farms and mayb-"

"NEVERMIND."

— kilgore trout was in the loop (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 29, 2016

Earlier today, in response to mounting concerns about Russian cyberattacks against the United States, President Obama vowed to impose sanctions on Russian intelligence services and ejected 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the U.S.

Breaking News: President Obama will impose sanctions on Russia, the strongest US response to foreign hacking https://t.co/z0iQMvunE5

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 29, 2016

That’s great and all, but where were the Obama administration’s concerns before? What was it that suddenly lit the fire under their butts?

Following the escape of dozen of horses, Obama issues executive action closing stable door effective immediately

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) December 29, 2016

Hi @POTUS. Can you read this on Kimmel next:

It took your party losing an election to recognize Russia as a geopolitical threat & act.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 29, 2016

That sounds about right.

Plenty of media — the same media who relentlessly mocked Mitt Romney for calling Russia our number one geopolitical foe — have suddenly discovered that Russia is in fact a very real threat to American security. Many outlets are even referring to the Russian cyberattacks as “election hacking,” which is, of course, extremely dishonest, to put it mildly.

Notice that the Obama admin won't go as far as the media is going. The admin will not say "election hacking" because it'd be FALSE. https://t.co/O4UyUVobFd

— RBe (@RBPundit) December 29, 2016

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"Election hacking" is not what happened and it is irresponsible to keep saying that's what happened. https://t.co/c3eLj1zJ1H

— RBe (@RBPundit) December 29, 2016

"Election hack."

This is a false headline. The election wasn't hacked. Podesta and the DNC were. https://t.co/0lYJGzKiuP

— RBe (@RBPundit) December 29, 2016

There was no election hack.

Stop spreading misinformation. https://t.co/gFllaRpTTC

— RBe (@RBPundit) December 29, 2016

If you had read headlines and top grafs alone, you could easily have gotten the impression that Russia hacked election totals.

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) December 29, 2016

But their newfound fear and apprehension when it comes to Russia appears to be shared now by President Obama. So nice of him to get around to acting on Russia after shrugging his shoulders at their previous hacking jobs!

Uh, Russians have been waging a cyber war against us for a while now. https://t.co/e2oZXZoH47

— RBe (@RBPundit) December 29, 2016

It continues to annoy me that many people are only now upset about foreign hacking after shrugging their shoulders at the OPM hack

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) December 29, 2016

https://twitter.com/JustEric/status/814567075230416896

[Hillary's email is hacked]
Meh
[OPM is hacked]
Meh
[DNC is hacked]
Meh
[Hillary loses to Trump]
OMG, our democracy has been hacked!

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) December 29, 2016

Anyone else feeling somewhat disconcerted by the fact that President Obama waited until he had one foot out the door to put his other foot down about Russia?

@ericgeller why were 35 spies living here ?

— Jean Tuttle (@waffle721) December 29, 2016

So no one's concerned that the govt knew there were 35 spies in the country but did nothing about them until they lost the election?

— dumbset (@GOPdumbset) December 29, 2016

Today I learned Russia had two spy farms on US soil they were allowed to operate out of until it was time for Obama to go perma-golfing.

— kilgore trout was in the loop (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 29, 2016

Umm…so with three weeks left to go Obama finally gets around to kicking out 35 Russian spies…? https://t.co/H5VfQvyHCi

— NeoKong (@The_NeoKong) December 29, 2016

So we only found out about 35 Russian spies 22 days before Obama is gone? Give me a break. #Russia https://t.co/IzYL1p2VEW

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 29, 2016

In short, we have basically had 35 spies in our country that the Obama administration knew about. Since before the email leaks.

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) December 29, 2016

You know what else is disconcerting? The very real possibility that if the election had gone differently, Obama would’ve let all of this continue to fester.

So. Obama kicks out 35 Russian spies today. If Hilary had won, can we assume he'd have let them stay. . .

— Ryan Hyatt (@RyanHyattMedia) December 29, 2016

What would those 35 Russian spies be up to if Hillary had won….?

— NeoKong (@The_NeoKong) December 29, 2016

I honestly get the feeling that, if Trump had lost, no one would give a single shit about these hacks. It wouldn't even be on the radar.

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) December 29, 2016

And, if that is the case, the Russian hacking (as serious as it actually is) is really just a proxy for anger over Trump's win

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) December 29, 2016

***

Update:

‘Move on’? Trump’s response to Obama’s Russia sanctions raises eyebrows