"Russia's cyberattacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee," Devin Nunes said in a statement. | AP Photo House Intel chair: Obama has 'suddenly awoken' to Russian threat

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is chiding President Barack Obama for ordering a "full review" of Russia's election-year cyberattacks, saying the administration "has suddenly awoken to the threat" posed by Moscow.

"Russia's cyberattacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee, which has been closely monitoring Russia's belligerence for years," the California Republican said Friday in a statement. "As I've said many times, the Intelligence Community has repeatedly failed to anticipate Putin's hostile actions."


Lisa Monaco, Obama's counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, today announced the review, responding to months of pressure from Congress for more information about the digital strikes that the Obama administration has blamed on Russia.

"We may have crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned," Monaco told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor event.

Thus far, congressional Democrats have welcomed news of the review and hope the administration will make its findings public.

But Nunes, who last month joined the executive committee of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, said the Obama administration was "dedicated to delusions of 'resetting' relations with Russia," and "ignored pleas by numerous Intelligence Committee members to take more forceful action against the Kremlin's aggression."

"It appears, however, that after eight years the administration has suddenly awoken to the threat," Nunes said.

