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Opinions: Without the Russians, Trump wouldn't have won
Max Kennerly Retweeted:Experts who examined the Kremlin campaignwhich included stealing Democratic emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking voter rollsconcluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Me:
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Opinions
Without the Russians, Trump wouldnt have won
By Max Boot Columnist July 24 at 6:36 PM [link:writetoboot@gmail.com|Email the author]
President Trump is willing, under duress, to briefly and begrudgingly admit that Russian meddling took place in 2016 before reverting to calling it a big hoax. (1)
But he always maintains that the plot against America had no impact; he describes it as a Democrat excuse for losing the 16 Election. (2) Faithfully echoing the president, other Republicans, such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), say its clear that the Russian interference didnt have a material effect on our elections. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders even claims that the U.S. intelligence community reached that conclusion. (3)
Not quite. Here is the intelligence communitys assessment, partially declassified in January 2017: We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion. When then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed last fall that the intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election, his own agency rebuked him.
While the intelligence agencies are silent on the impact of Russias attack, outside experts who have examined the Kremlin campaign which included stealing and sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls have concluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, writes in his recent book, Messing with the Enemy, that Russia absolutely influenced the U.S. presidential election, especially in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trumps winning margin was less than 1 percent in each state.
....
Now, by contrast, Trump and his apologists pretend that the Russian intervention including the WikiLeaks revelations was no big deal. That beggars belief. Even if the Russians had failed, they still attacked our democracy. Yet they didnt fail: Trump won. Russian disinformation wasnt the only factor in the outcome and was probably less important in the end than FBI Director James B. Comeys announcement 11 days before the election that he was reopening the Clinton email investigation. But Watts concludes: Without the Russian influence effort, I believe Trump would not have even been within striking distance of Clinton on Election Day. That is the inconvenient truth the Putin Republicans wont admit.
Max Boot, a Post columnist, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a global affairs analyst for CNN. He is the author of the forthcoming The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." Follow https://twitter.com/MaxBoot
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Without the Russians, Trump wouldnt have won
By Max Boot Columnist July 24 at 6:36 PM [link:writetoboot@gmail.com|Email the author]
President Trump is willing, under duress, to briefly and begrudgingly admit that Russian meddling took place in 2016 before reverting to calling it a big hoax. (1)
But he always maintains that the plot against America had no impact; he describes it as a Democrat excuse for losing the 16 Election. (2) Faithfully echoing the president, other Republicans, such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), say its clear that the Russian interference didnt have a material effect on our elections. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders even claims that the U.S. intelligence community reached that conclusion. (3)
Not quite. Here is the intelligence communitys assessment, partially declassified in January 2017: We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion. When then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed last fall that the intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election, his own agency rebuked him.
While the intelligence agencies are silent on the impact of Russias attack, outside experts who have examined the Kremlin campaign which included stealing and sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls have concluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, writes in his recent book, Messing with the Enemy, that Russia absolutely influenced the U.S. presidential election, especially in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trumps winning margin was less than 1 percent in each state.
....
Now, by contrast, Trump and his apologists pretend that the Russian intervention including the WikiLeaks revelations was no big deal. That beggars belief. Even if the Russians had failed, they still attacked our democracy. Yet they didnt fail: Trump won. Russian disinformation wasnt the only factor in the outcome and was probably less important in the end than FBI Director James B. Comeys announcement 11 days before the election that he was reopening the Clinton email investigation. But Watts concludes: Without the Russian influence effort, I believe Trump would not have even been within striking distance of Clinton on Election Day. That is the inconvenient truth the Putin Republicans wont admit.
Max Boot, a Post columnist, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a global affairs analyst for CNN. He is the author of the forthcoming The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." Follow https://twitter.com/MaxBoot
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Opinions: Without the Russians, Trump wouldn't have won (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Jul 2018
OP
dalton99a
(81,406 posts)1. Kick
2naSalit
(86,345 posts)2. K&R!!
czarjak
(11,254 posts)3. Now tell me something I don't know.
Botany
(70,449 posts)4. Opinions: Without the Russians, Trump wouldn't have won
It was treason and we had a coup. Lock 'em up.
Sneederbunk
(14,279 posts)5. Comey. Comey. Comey.
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)6. K&R for visibility.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)7. "the Putin Republicans"
Nice to see them called out in print.