House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffSchiff claims DHS is blocking whistleblower's access to records before testimony GOP lawmakers distance themselves from Trump comments on transfer of power Rubio on peaceful transfer of power: 'We will have a legitimate & fair election' MORE (D-Calif.) reacted Sunday to a New York Times report on U.S. intelligence agencies’ efforts against Russian election meddling that drew President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE’s ire.

“Certainly I think the intelligence community is training its focus and resources on the Russian threat even if the president isn’t,” Schiff said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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“Establishing a deterrent [to election interference is very important, but that effort to establish a deterrent is dramatically undercut when the president, a month ago, told Putin over the phone that he still thinks the Russian interference into our election was a hoax,” Schiff added.

.@RepAdamSchiff says there’s been a focus to prevent Russian meddling in U.S. elections and that establishing a deterrent is important. But he says efforts to establish a deterrent is “dramatically undercut” when the president told Putin he thinks Russian interference is a hoax. pic.twitter.com/kNnxdQz4wh — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 16, 2019

The Times article, published Saturday, detailed U.S. efforts to penetrate Russia’s power grid.

“It has gotten far, far more aggressive over the past year,” one senior intelligence official told the Times. “We are doing things at a scale that we never contemplated a few years ago.”

Trump denounced the story as “NOT TRUE!” Saturday night and called the Times’ publication of it “a virtual act of Treason.”

“What I found most disturbing in that New York Times story was the fact that the security officials within the administration felt they couldn’t tell this to the president because they felt he might compromise that information,” Schiff said.