BUFFALO, N.Y. -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is part of a growing chorus of lawmakers calling for action in the wake of mounting evidence Russian hackers intentionally interfered with last month's presidential election.

"This was an absolute violation of the law. It is a horrible precedent for another country to try to interfere in a U.S. election. It is very concerning, and I'm grateful that the president in going to take the leadership to respond accordingly," said Gillibrand (D-New York).

President Obama vowed Friday to retaliate.

"This particular concern around Russian hacking is part of a broader set of concerns about how do we deal with cyber issues being used in ways that can affect our infrastructure, affect the stability of our financial systems and affect the integrity of our institutions like our election process," said Obama.

"To put it in stark terms, America has been played, and basically what I assess it as is basically a bloodless coup," said Buffalo State political science professor Anthony Neal.  

Neal is not sure how the president will respond.

"The president knows a lot more than he's able to say, and they don't want to compromise agents in the field and some of their sources for getting intelligence. But as he stated that some you will know about and some you will not know about. I think we have to take him at his word in that regard," said Neal.          

Meantime, Gillibrand say she would like to see congressional commission investigate the incident.

"We need to prevent this from happening in the future, and we need to let people know the seriousness of what a cyber-attack looks like and how undermining it can be," said Gillibrand.

President-elect Donald Trump rejects the idea Russians interfered in the election.