California U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, recently explained how the Obama administration’s inaction in cyberspace emboldened Russian hackers to target the 2016 election.

The anti-Trump Democrat was discussing national security and global challenges at a Council on Foreign Relations event last week when he placed the blame for Russian meddling in the 2016 election on Obama’s weak response to previous cyber attacks.

“I do think though … some of the responsibility is attributed to the Obama administration for not establishing a more forceful deterrent,” Schiff said in a video of the talk posted to YouTube. “I think it goes back to the Korean hack of Sony in which there was a minimal response. I think that others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention.”

Schiff said he believes the U.S. should have responded to the Sony attack with a more forceful “informational response” to make it clear America won’t tolerate the online antics.

“There will always be a certain level of plausible deniability with cyber, because even though we’re quite good at attribution now, we’re never going to want to fully show our hands about how we know who did what,” he said. “But you don’t need to show your hand as long as you can establish a deterrent. And you don’t necessarily need to respond to a cyber attack with another cyber attack.

“I think the response in North Korea should have been an informational response. The North Koreans hate it when South Korea responds with information about how terrible their regime is. .. I think if we would have embarked on an informational response it would have been a deterrent to further North Korean meddling,” he said.

The weak response from the Obama administration likely emboldened Russian hackers in 2016, when the administration again failed to take swift action.

“Russians are equal opportunity benevolent actors. They’re not Republicans and they’re not Democrats, they’re just designed in their foreign policy and in their cyber policy to undermine the United States. They view the world as a zero sum game where anything that’s good for us is bad for them and vice versa,” Schiff said.

“ … With the Russians, we should have called them out much earlier. Sen. Feinstein and I were the first two to make an official attribution, but it’s not the same coming from two members of Congress from the same party as it is from the administration,” he said.

“And while I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration – they didn’t want to be seen as meddling – the American people had a right to know what’s going on and could be trusted to the right thing with it. And they should have defended being more public and aggressive at the time, at least in my view.”

Trump sounded off about Schiff’s comments on Twitter over the weekend.

“Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election,” Trump posted Sunday. “He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!”

“Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election,” the president tweeted. “But wasn’t I a great candidate?”

Schiff, of course, returned fire.

“Sorry for the delay @POTUS. Was on a plane back from Munich where General McMaster confronted Russia over its meddling,” he tweeted. “I’ve always said Obama should’ve acted sooner. But you won’t recognize the truth, impose sanctions or act at all. If McMaster can stand up to Putin, why can’t you?”

Trump cut to the chase.

“If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,” he posted. “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”