While interviewing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on today’s broadcast of ABC’s This Week, host Jonathan Karl pressed the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on President Barack Obama’s lack of a response to China hacking federal employees.

Referencing comments by incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Karl wondered if he had a point on the level of response by Obama when it came to issuing sanctions against Russia over allegations of hacking the election compared to inaction over China.

“But doesn’t the incoming Trump press secretary have a point here on the response by the Obama Administration,” Karl asked. “We did have that hack by the Chinese — the OPM attack — this was 22 million federal employees affected.”

The ABC host continued, “The Obama Administration did nothing that we know of publicly. Why did they do nothing about that huge hack done by China and this — just on the way out the door — make this big statement about the Russia hack.”

Schiff went on to explain to Karl that the major difference in the two actions was that China stole date for intelligence gathering. While a serious issue, it wasn’t as dangerous as what Russia did because the Russian went and weaponized their stolen date.

Recently, Obama imposed sanctions on Russia over the intelligence community’s conclusions that the country used hacking to interfere in the election. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has continued to express skepticism about the assessments, stating last night that he knows things others don’t while casting doubt that the Russians were involved.

Watch the interview above, via ABC News.

[image via screengrab]

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