The Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing on the Obama administration's response to Russian election interference is about to begin. Livestream and witness info here: intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-…
Committee chairman @SenatorBurr and vice chairman @MarkWarner shake hands with the witnesses before the hearing begins. 
The hearing started late due to Senate votes but we're on our way now. Burr is delivering opening remarks:
From Burr’s opening statement: The committee has invited Susan Rice and her deputies to testify “in a few weeks; we’ve also invited former leaders from FBI and DOJ to testify in July."
Warner is delivering his opening remarks now. Read them here:
Warner: "At the end of the day, it is hard to see the Russian influence campaign as anything but a success for Vladimir Putin. Today is about learning from those past missteps. We have to do better.”
More Warner: "I believe we profoundly missed the mark in tracking and responding to influence operations on our social media platforms…Even to this day...I have significant concerns that we are still behind the eight ball in effectively combatting these tactics."
Ambassador Victoria Nuland is delivering her opening remarks. Read them here:
Nuland was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs under President Barack Obama.
Now Michael Daniel, former cybersecurity coordinator for Obama, is delivering his opening remarks. Read them here:
Daniel: Options to respond to the Russians mostly remain classified but “included diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, economic, and cyber activities.”
Daniel: “Now that the Russians have proven that cyber means can be used to engage in election interference in the United States, we should expect that they will continue to engage in such activities and that other actors will follow their lead, including non-nation state actors."
Burr asks if it’s fair to say that response before election day was limited to Obama warning Putin. Nuland says there were also “follow-up conversations” at other levels of government and "use of some preexisting channels” with the Russians.
But no deterrent measures in electoral period, Nuland says.
Daniel says he doesn’t think social media platforms will be able to find all malicious actors.
Burr asks about the Steele dossier. Nuland says she was first shown excerpts of it in mid-July 2016, she believes. Wasn’t the complete dossier. Didn’t see whole thing until published by US media (BuzzFeed).
Nuland says this Kremlin watches what American does more than what it says — so action is likely a more effective deterrent.
Nuland on Pres. Trump: "I am very concerned when America's adversaries appear to get better public and private treatment than America's closest friends."
Nuland says the Russians probably expected deterrent measures but didn’t see them so kept pushing.
Nuland points to French Pres. Macron’s response to the Russian influence campaign during the French election as a model for how to respond to Russian interference.
Sen. Collins asked how the former admin viewed Wikileaks — news org, hostile intelligence service, platform?
Daniel: "All of the above,” basically.
Daniel: "All of the above,” basically.
Daniel: It’s "highly likely” that the Russians at least scanned the voting systems of all 50 states.
Hearing is wrapping up. It’ll be followed this afternoon by a classified hearing.
