CNN commentator Van Jones said on Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump had a patriotic duty to respond to Russia's cyber attacks on the United States, which intelligence agencies say was an effort to sway the election in favor of the Republican candidate.

"This is baffling to anybody with a functioning brain stem," Jones explained to a CNN panel. "We have to be honest about this."

According to Jones, Trump's fondness for President Vladimir Putin is unlike the "warm things" that other presidents have said about Russia to foster diplomacy.

"Not in the face of an active attack on the country!" he exclaimed. "Cyber war is real war. So you have an active attack on our country and you have the president-elect [who] cannot find in himself to say this is wrong and it needs to stop."

Jones noted that Trump has been quick to respond to personal and partisan attacks "but he cannot respond as a patriot to an attack" on American democracy by Russia.

"This is an attack on our country!" Jones declared to the CNN panel. "And I just think that everybody sitting here trying to pretend this is normal, this is not normal and it's dangerous."