The 35 Russian diplomats accused by the United States of being spies and ordered to leave the US were flown out of the country on Sunday amid a growing rift in the Republican Party over the expulsion order by President Barack Obama.

On Sunday, a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump said the Obama administration may have overreacted in ordering the expulsion of the Russian diplomats, but on Capitol Hill Republican senators were saying the White House Response did not go far enough.

Trump's chief spokesman, Sean Spicer, said during a Sunday public affairs program that the president-elect will be asking questions of US intelligence agencies this week regarding their conclusions that Russian intelligence hacked into the emails of the Democratic National Committee and a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"One of the questions that we have is why the magnitude of this? I mean, you look at 35 people being expelled, two sites being closed down, the question is: Is that response in proportion to the actions taken?" Spicer said. "Maybe it was; maybe it wasn't, but you have to think about that."

Watch video 00:35 Obama sanctions Russia over alleged election hacking

Doubling down on doubts

The closing of the two sites was a reference to the closing of two Russian facilities that President Obama said were spy dens.

On Saturday, Trump doubled down on his doubts that the Russians were involved in the hackings

"I think it's unfair if we don't know," Trump said. "It could be somebody else. I also know things that other people don't know so we cannot be sure."

Trump said he would disclose some information on the issue on Tuesday or Wednesday, but he did not elaborate. It's unclear if, upon taking office on Jan. 20, Trump would seek to roll back Obama's actions, which mark a post-Cold War low in US-Russian relations.

If so, Trump can expect strong resistance not only from Democrats but from fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on foreign cyberthreats. He has said Russia must be made to pay a price for attacks "on our very fundamentals of democracy."

That sentiment was echoed by another, archly conservative Republican senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Speaking on another Sunday talk show, Cotton said, flatly, that Obama's punishment of Russia did not go far enough.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline Democrats in the dark Over the summer, a security company hired by the Democratic National Convention tells the DNC that they have been successfully infiltrated by hackers for more than year. Two groups, known as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, both have links to the Russian government, the Washington Post reports.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline All eyes on Russia At the end of July, the FBI launches an investigation into whether or not the Russian government ordered the DNC hack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calls the move "paranoid."

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline 'Russia, if you're listening' On the campaign trail, Republican nominee Donald Trump encourages Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing." In a series of debates with rival Hillary Clinton, Trump casts doubt on Moscow's role in hacks that targeted the DNC and Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline WikiLeaks targets Clinton Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks begins releasing slightly compromising emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Co-founder Julian Assange defends targeting Clinton, saying Trump's own statements are indictment enough of the Republican nominee. Over a period of months, WikiLeaks consistently denies allegations that its sources are based in Russia.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline CIA, FBI investigations In a rare moment of complete agreement for the two biggest intelligence agencies in the US, both the FBI and CIA come to the conclusion that the Russian government sought to influence the US election by promoting unfavorable coverage of Hillary Clinton.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline Donald and Vladimir Trump, who has made no secret of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calls the intelligence reports "ridiculous." Anti-Clinton voices slam the probe as a distraction meant to discredit the now president-elect. This puts Trump at odds with Republicans in Congress who call for an independent investigation.

Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline Obama expels diplomats At the end of December, the Obama administration expels 35 Russian diplomats and shuts down two Russian intelligence compounds as the Kremlin continues to deny having a role in the summer's cyberattacks. President Putin eschews direct retaliation, saying he will wait to see how President-elect Trump's Russia policies play out. Author: Elizabeth Schumacher



bik/kl (Reuters, AFP, AP)