CIA: Russia influenced election to help Trump win

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

WaPo: Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.”

crimsonaudio · Dec 9, 2016

Honest question - assuming it's true, what's the answer?

I've no idea...

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

Nor do I. Regardless, the extent of their involvement needs to be known.

Tide1986 · Dec 9, 2016

Hand wringing.

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

The Trump transition team issued a statement in response:

These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and "Make America Great Again."

Um, okay...

1) This was not one of the biggest EC victories in history. Someone who lost the individual vote by nearly 3 million probably shouldn't exaggerate.
2) Sure. Intelligence agencies indicated that they believed Saddam had WMDs more than a decade ago. Absolutely no idea what that has to do with anything in the article.
3) Urging us to just ignore this and move on is not exactly a persuasive argument.

Displaced Bama Fan · Dec 9, 2016

Clinton Foundation was pay for play...and they had a lot of "interesting" parties donating to it.

Both make strange bed fellows.

bamachile · Dec 9, 2016

Not sure what's more disturbing here.

A foreign entity can significantly affect US elections.
They do so by leaking secret truths.

crimsonaudio · Dec 9, 2016

CharminTide said:
The Trump transition team issued a statement in response:

Um, okay...

1) This was not one of the biggest EC victories in history. Someone who lost the individual vote by nearly 3 million probably shouldn't exaggerate.
2) Sure. Intelligence agencies indicated that they believed Saddam had WMDs more than a decade ago. Absolutely no idea what that has to do with anything in the article.
3) Urging us to just ignore this and move on is not exactly a persuasive argument.

Well, so far, if I'm not mistaken, the recounts have shown no significant change in the vote totals, so overall vote vs EC is still a nonstarter.

The bigger point (and if you want this point to stand, you cannot get dragged into the EC vs popular vote argument) is whether or not a foreign government actually affected the voting. If this is the case, we need to know it, and if so, we need to figure out how to answer it - it cannot be ignored.

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

Tide1986 said:
Hand wringing.

The Democratic response to this is easy and obvious. But it's a tougher spot for Republicans. Push too hard, and you make your win look illegitimate. Ignore it, and you get attacked for enabling a foreign adversary to influence the US government.

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

crimsonaudio said:
Well, so far, if I'm not mistaken, the recounts have shown no significant change in the vote totals, so overall vote vs EC is still a nonstarter.

The bigger point (and if you want this point to stand, you cannot get dragged into the EC vs popular vote argument) is whether or not a foreign government actually affected the voting. If this is the case, we need to know it, and if so, we need to figure out how to answer it - it cannot be ignored.

I was pointing out how utterly... bizarre that response was. But you're right, let's not drag any EC discussion into this thread.

As for your second point: we obviously agree. And I would hope that anyone who values this country enough to call themselves an American feels the same way.

Jon · Dec 9, 2016

I would say it's mind boggling to me that the rights response is, meh we got power who cares how we got it and their voters seemingly agree

but then again we elected an orange reality tv star as our leader so who the hell knows what end is up anymore

Displaced Bama Fan · Dec 9, 2016

Jon said:
I would say it's mind boggling to me that the rights response is, meh we got power who cares how we got it and their voters seemingly agree

but then again we elected an orange reality tv star as our leader so who the hell knows what end is up anymore

Why do you have to hate on Oompa Loompas?

tidegrandpa · Dec 9, 2016

Displaced Bama Fan said:
Why do you have to hate on Oompa Loompas?

This guy hates on everybody,don't feel rained on. Makes them feel important.

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

Jon said:
I would say it's mind boggling to me that the rights response is, meh we got power who cares how we got it and their voters seemingly agree.

Intelligence agencies briefed Congress about Russian attempts to influence our election, and also about some of Anthony Weiner's emails. Republicans chose to disclose the emails.

Tide1986 · Dec 9, 2016

CharminTide said:
The Democratic response to this is easy and obvious. But it's a tougher spot for Republicans. Push too hard, and you make your win look illegitimate. Ignore it, and you get attacked for enabling a foreign adversary to influence the US government.

Republicans can ignore it without consequence because there'll be plenty of hand wringers "investigating" and posting "news" about it for the next 4 years. The only thing left to do is to come up with a cutesy "birther" or "denier" term for the hand wringers.

Tide1986 · Dec 9, 2016

Strange that this is a concern for those who have no issue if noncitizens vote in our elections.

Wilson Monroe · Dec 9, 2016

If only something could have been done to keep Russia from obtaining these damning e-mails in the first place...

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

Tide1986 said:
Republicans can ignore it without consequence because there'll be plenty of hand wringers "investigating" and posting "news" about it for the next 4 years. The only thing left to do is to come up with a cutesy "birther" or "denier" term for the hand wringers.

We'll have to see, but I think the gravity of a CIA report far outweighs a dismissible story by some investigative journalist. They may not be able to ignore it. But beyond the politics, I hope that the patriots with the GOP Congress (and there are a few) wouldn't ignore it.

As for the cutsy nickname, I'll be expecting that in a 3am tweet sometime this weekend.

92tide · Dec 9, 2016

Displaced Bama Fan said:
Clinton Foundation was pay for play...and they had a lot of "interesting" parties donating to it.

Both make strange bed fellows.

no it wasn't

CharminTide · Dec 9, 2016

Tide1986 said:
Strange that this is a concern for those who have no issue if noncitizens vote in our elections.

For the recrd, I condemn the four documented cases of election fraud in 2016. But let's not deflect this thread quite so soon.

CIA: Russia influenced election to help Trump win

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