Russia's government and their military intelligence was credibly implicated in several major plots during Trump's time in office, but Trump never took action in response to the most damning schemes such as the scheme to place bounties on the heads of American service members in Afghanistan.
Trump never retaliated for Russia's record-breaking hack of the SolarWinds software platform, either, but the Biden administration is planning to respond to each of Putin's schemes all at once.
Sources who spoke to Bloomberg say the White House will expel more Russians from the country and sanction people close to Putin.
Possible moves could involve sanctions and the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. [...]
One person familiar with the deliberations said the U.S. response would likely comprise several elements. That would include sanctions singling out people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as agencies linked to election interference.
In addition to sanctioning specific individuals, there could also be expulsions of diplomats as well as private talks with Russia laying out further actions the U.S. would be prepared to take. Those moves would be aimed at establishing effective deterrence against future cyber attacks such as the one that compromised popular software made by the Texas-based firm SolarWinds Corp. and infiltrated government agencies as well as private companies.
Administration officials are reportedly concerned about what implication their actions may have for talks to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal which Russia is also involved in, but it appears those concerns won't stop them.
We can only speculate what American officials may say during private talks, but I think it's long past time to put a tighter squeeze on Putin's regime especially now that he has signed legislation to keep himself in power for the rest of his life.
The Trump regime, elected Republicans, and conservative media have never forcefully responded to anything Putin has done in the last six years. Putin's action have benefited the GOP in most cases and they've demonstrated a complete willingness to sell out their own country for an electoral advantage. Whatever helps them 'own the libs' is acceptable.
If you want a government that actually takes national security seriously -- and I don't mean in the color-coded threat level sense -- you have to elect Democrats. It still feels to say that because I'm old enough to remember what the national security environment looked like during the Bush administration, but Republicans have not taken the matter seriously since at least the McCain campaign in 2008.