James Clapper: “this illustrates how political really this list is.”

There's this gray area of First Amendment protection rights versus an insidious presence in our country that is really there to weaken and destroy our system. That's really what this is about. And its state sponsored.

I think it has more to do with the psychology of Putin, and Russia. And he needs to assure his own people, Parliamentarians, he was talking to, and for that matter, himself, that Russia is still a great power.

I think, though, that what has been in the past considered an annoyance or an irritation, has now risen to the level of a genuine national security threat.

it's a question of time. It's not if, it's when we have some sort of confrontation that we're going to have to respond to, the NATO will have to respond to.