Of COURSE he comes on strong against Russia. Trump is reeling domestically from his perceived ties to Russia, so he sends a lieutenant out to staunch that wound. Or... maybe it's all part of Russia's "influence campaign." They don't want American lawmakers to know how deeply Trump is in their pocket, so they order Trump to put up a smoke screen.

Question: if America's security agencies knew that Russia had deeply incriminating information on Trump would they make it public, thereby throwing the country into political chaos? Or would they keep that knowledge secret from the public, while letting only Trump know that they knew?