ST. LOUIS — Donald Trump still won’t acknowledge that Russia is trying to mess with the U.S. presidential election. But he’s pretty much the only Republican who hasn’t gotten the memo.

From Capitol Hill to the intelligence community and across a wide spectrum of policy and political experts surveyed by POLITICO, the GOP has no problem accepting the Obama administration’s assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government ordered up the hacks into various U.S. political organizations, including the Democratic National Committee.


And while Obama’s high-stakes accusation raises diplomatic questions for the U.S. and its former Cold War adversary, it’s also demonstrated Trump to be a GOP outlier.

Indeed, Trump’s stance runs far counter to what many Republicans in the know actually know.

“It certainly was the worst-kept secret when it comes to the intelligence community,” Mike Rogers, the former Michigan GOP congressman who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, said of the Russian hacks.

The Republican nominee initially shrugged off suspected Russian ties to the hacks last month during his first debate with Hillary Clinton, stating the cyberespionage could have been the work of China or even “somebody sitting on their bed, that weighs 400 pounds.” And on Sunday, after Clinton suggested the Russian hacks were designed to help the Republican win the White House, Trump countered, “She doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking.”

But back on the ranch, a chorus of Republican voices who have handled sensitive intelligence issues see the hacks — brought home again Monday with the WikiLeaks release of thousands of emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — as unquestionably of Russian origin.

“It’s no surprise” to hear Russia is targeting political organizations, said California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of House Intelligence Committee. His Senate counterpart, Richard Burr, issued a brief statement deferring to the latest findings of the Obama administration.

“I believe it sufficiently covers what we believe to be the case at this time,” the North Carolina Republican said.

Many of the Republicans interviewed in the days leading up to and in the wake of Friday’s announcement — made via news release from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and director of national intelligence James Clapper — said they had long ago made the Russian connection, despite what Trump has said on the matter.

And while their nominee won’t finger Putin, despite the intelligence briefings he’s been getting since August, many of these GOP voices said they want to see an even more aggressive Obama administration response bringing down the hammer on Russia.

“I’ve been calling for attribution for a long time. ... This is a serious topic and an example of how the Russians are our adversary,” said Rep. Will Hurd, a Texas GOP freshman who previously worked for the CIA. He went so far as to call for retribution that included the not-so-diplomatic ejection of Moscow’s ambassador to the U.S.

“There has to be consequences to this kind of behavior,” Hurd told POLITICO. “And I think a good first step is kicking out the ambassador.”

Rogers said he wasn’t ready to support Hurd’s call for the forced removal of Russia’s top diplomats in Washington. But he did suggest it is time for new economic sanctions or even “visa problems” on the Russian hackers who’ve been involved in meddling with the U.S. election.

“You want to put them on notice,” Rogers said. “You have to be severe.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the St. Louis debate, Karl Rove, the former George W. Bush White House aide, said he had also seen “pretty clear evidence all along” that it was Russian hackers who were targeting American political organizations.

But Rove also faulted the Obama administration’s decision to make news on the topic late this past Friday afternoon in a way that he said appeared designed to tarnish Trump and benefit Clinton.

Many in Washington wish to punish Vladimir Putin's government. | AP Photo

“It was inappropriate for them to reiterate that on the eve of the debate,” Rove said, though he also acknowledged the story about the Russian hacks had been overshadowed within an hour by the damaging release of an 11-year-old video showing Trump bragging about sexual assault.

Asked after the debate how Trump could take such a contrary position to what the leaders of the U.S. intelligence community and other prominent voices were saying on the topic, campaign spokesman Jason Miller replied, “You know what? I don’t have anything to add to what he said there.”

Clinton’s campaign has sought to play offense on the Russian hacks. Her campaign manager, Robbie Mook, said in an interview before the latest debate that it was “disturbing that there’s an active espionage happening and he’s somehow shielding them from that.”

“He needs to answer for that, why he did, why he said those things,” Mook said.

As Republicans start taking more public stances on the hacks, many Democrats say they’ve been frustrated by GOP counterparts who for months have ignored their requests for a congressional investigation or hearings to examine the issue. Even the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees failed last month to get their GOP chairmen to sign off on a statement calling on Putin to butt out of the U.S. election.

“He’s made it much more difficult for Republicans,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said of Trump. “They’ve felt compelled to keep quiet. They don’t want to say anything that might hurt their nominee.”

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed any new GOP voices to the debate, noting the party’s long-standing tradition of being aggressive on policy toward Russia.

“It’s striking to me that a party that for decades was clear-eyed about the very real threat that Russia posed to our interest both in Europe and directly in this country could be in some ways willfully blind to the threat to our electoral politics of Russian interference,” he said. “I understand how Donald Trump can be. I’m surprised that some of my colleagues may be.”

But Coons, speaking to POLITICO moments before he entered the St. Louis debate hall, also quickly added a caveat, “I don’t mean to paint too broad a brush,” citing Republicans such as Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have long been on board in their calls to penalize Russia for its cyberattacks.

Schiff said he also expected the GOP chorus to get much louder — once Trump is no longer the party’s standard-bearer.

“I’d not be surprised to see a lot of my Republican colleagues after the election begin to call on Russia much more forcefully,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something we can ignore.”