Trump says 'the facts' prove he's tougher on Russia than Obama -- they don't

That hasn't stopped the President from pushing that line or from seeming to suggest in a Wednesday tweet that Obama be investigated for unspecified "Dem crimes" and not doing anything about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

"Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren't they the subject of the investigation?" Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. "Why didn't Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren't Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!"

The line is a shift for Trump, who has repeatedly refused to acknowledge Russian meddling in the election, downplayed it or suggested someone else is to blame. Despite the consensus view of all US intelligence agencies that Russia did indeed interfere, and public affirmation of this from members of Trump's own Cabinet, the President persists in doubting Russia played a role at all, according to CNN reporting.

After the Friday indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller of 13 Russians and three Russian entities for an extensive effort to interfere with US elections, the President went on the attack against Democrats, tweeting in a spectacular fashion. Among his Twitter tirades, the President railed that, "I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts. Total Fake News!"

The facts tell a different story.

Trump, who has been consistently and openly admiring of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has yet to levy a single sanction to punish Russia for election interference, despite the fact that Congress almost unanimously passed legislation that took effect on January 29 requiring him to do so, and despite senior intelligence officials testifying that Russia is trying to disrupt the 2018 midterms.

Last week again, the administration had yet another chance to levy sanctions for Russian cyber activity and, so far, has chosen not to.

A look at what the Trump administration has done on Russia highlights an interesting dynamic.

While the President himself seems unable to criticize Russia for meddling and unwilling to lead a fight to protect future elections, officials around him, more hawkish about Moscow than the President is, frequently call out Russia, with military officials in particular taking steps that are likely to make Moscow feel pressured.

The administration used its national security strategy to explicitly label Russia a "revisionist" foe that's seeking to change the status quo, and it recommended developing several new nuclear weapons to counter Russian activity.

The US recently began ramping up its presence in the Black Sea, which sits on Russia's doorstep, between Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Western Asia. The increased American presence makes Russia feel threatened, US officials said, and may be why Moscow seems to do more dangerous intercepts of US surveillance aircraft in the area than in other places.

The Trump administration has asked to increase funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, an Obama program aimed at bolstering NATO's defenses against Russia, by almost $2 billion. The White House has also built on the Obama administration's support for the Ukrainian military by providing it with arms.

The administration has done "a whole lot of other things that people tend to forget about" to pressure Russia and hold it accountable, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster have been harsh about Russia, Trump himself has offered no criticism, just continued praise for Putin. And compared with the Obama administration, Trump is so far pulling punches when it comes to sanctions for election interference.

Obama issued executive orders sanctioning Russia after Moscow's invasion and annexation of Crimea in March 2014. When it became clear the Kremlin was backing militant groups in eastern Ukraine and fomenting violence, particularly after the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet, the Obama White House followed with sanctions that targeted whole sectors of the Russian economy.

The Brookings Institution cites analysts who believe those sanctions, along with European Union penalties, have dealt a severe blow to Russia's economy, cutting the country's gross domestic product by as much as 1%.

In the lead-up to the 2016 election, when officials became aware of Russian meddling, Obama personally warned Putin in September against doing so. That October, the US publicly accused Russia of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee, among others. Administration officials briefed lawmakers, and sought help from Republican leadership in issuing statements challenging Russia.

After the election, in December 2016, Obama targeted Russia for its election interference, sanctioning three companies, four top intelligence officials and two Russian intelligence agencies, the military spy service called the GRU, and the FSB, the civilian spy agency formerly known as the KGB.

No sanctionable activity 'just yet'

Trump hasn't taken a single independent step to punish Russia for its election meddling, not even with the powers granted by a new law, the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. That law allows the administration to target Moscow's powerful elites and companies and countries that do business with blacklisted Russian military and intelligence entities.

"We don't have sanctionable activity just yet, but we are working every day to determine if there is something taking place," Nauert said Tuesday.

But CIA Director Mike Pompeo told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the CIA has already "seen Russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here." There has been no public action from the administration on the issue to date.

Democratic lawmakers point out that the White House itself highlighted another example of Russia's sanctionable activity under the new law just last week, when it issued a statement blaming the Russian military for the June 2017 cyberattack called NotPetya.

Calling it "the most destructive and costly cyber attack in history," the White House said last Thursday that the virus "quickly spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas."

It's a case where sanctions under the new law's cyber provisions would certainly apply, according to Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I expect the imminent imposition of sanctions by the administration," Menendez said. He added that if they're not imposed, the White House statement rings "hollow."

Menendez pointed out in a February 13 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that, "it has been more than six months since CAATSA was signed into law, and not one mandatory sanction has been imposed. It's inexcusable." Trump "continues to ignore congressional will with respect to the mandatory sanctions passed last year," Menendez said.

Nauert, along with White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, defended the administration's record. "The sum of our actions as it pertains to Russia ... is not CAATSA. We have done a lot more than just CAATSA," Nauert said.

Sanders pointed to the fact that the Trump administration has continued measures begun under Obama, who on top of the December 2016 sanctions expelled 35 Russian diplomats and seized two Russian diplomatic compounds in the US. At the time, the Kremlin said it wouldn't retaliate but would wait until the Trump administration took power.

Trump, then president-elect, said it was time for the country to "move on" from the issue.

Since Trump took office, his administration has used existing sanctions to target Russians for human rights abuses in December 2017 under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions and for Moscow's annexation of Crimea in January 2018, when it sanctioned 21 individuals, nine entities and the senior leaders of two Ukrainian separatist groups.

After Russia retaliated against Obama's December 2016 expulsion of its diplomats by demanding the US reduce its embassy and consular staff by more than 700 people, Trump initially thanked Putin for helping him pare down staff levels, in what he later described as a joke. The Trump administration eventually seized Russian diplomatic facilities in San Francisco, New York and Washington.

"That is partly because of what they did in our 2016 elections," Nauert said.

Sanders also highlighted Trump's request for funding to increase the size of the military, the fact that he has upheld Obama administration sanctions and his decision to provide arms to Ukraine as examples of the President being tougher on Russia than Obama.

And she hinted that some action might be coming. "He has done a number of things to put pressure on Russia and be tough on Russia," Sanders said. "Last week there was an incident that will be reported in the coming days."

Many critics have pointed out that amid all his tweeting, the President has yet to express any concern or provide leadership to counter the threat of Russian meddling in the 2018 midterms, a prospect that his intelligence chiefs said last week was beyond doubt.

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, flagged that blind spot in a tweeted response to Trump's call for Attorney General Sessions to investigate Obama. "What's really concerning here is that the President thinks the Russians stopped attacking our democracy on January 20th," Warner wrote.

Indeed, Trump has continued to try to muddy the waters about Russia and the election, even at the expense of his most senior staff. Over the weekend, the President publicly rebuked McMaster for saying, at a German security conference, that there is "incontrovertible" evidence that Russia meddled in the election.

"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems," Trump said, referring to his former rival Hillary Clinton.