President Obama noted that releasing documents to the press wasn’t exactly a new form of espionage.
Calling the hacked emails “not a particularly fancy brand of espionage or propaganda,” he claimed that “Russia trying to influence our elections dates back to the Soviet Union,” and then explained why he’s ordered a hasty review of Russia’s alleged hacking.
What was different this time around was the attention given the documents. The method in which the documents were obtained was all but ignored in media coverage, while the contents of the documents were not just gone over with a fine-toothed comb, but subject to speculation and given an inflated importance well beyond what the bland contents would suggest.
“The real question that I think we all have to reflect on is this: What has happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story, and the constant source of coverage… that was depicted as somehow damning in all sorts of ways, when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff,” said Obama.
Meanwhile, Reid was blunt that the stolen emails released through WikiLeaks were just a facet of Trump’s connection to Russia, and Russia’s attempts to assist Trump.
“Don’t put blindfolds on,” he said. “Here is the deal: We have a situation where during the campaign, especially the last few months of the campaign, WikiLeaks was heavily involved in trying to hurt Hillary Clinton and it helped Trump. And you have Trump who said he likes Putin better than he likes Obama.”
What were Russian officials saying just two days after the election?
Russian government officials had contacts with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday. ...
"Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Rybakov said. “… I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives.”
Campaign Action
That Russia hacked the emails is the conclusion of every security firm and intelligence agency that has taken a serious look at the information.
Trump’s organization had numerous connection to Russia, including money coming to Trump himself.
Trump not only made numerous statements praising Putin, but attacked NATO allies, weakened language in the Republican platform concerning Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, and personally called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s email.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort worked for the Russians to put Moscow’s man at the head of the Ukraine government, staged protests against NATO and the United States, and created a pretext for Russian invasion. He also pocketed millions in under-the-table payments.
Trump’s selection for Secretary of State is not only great friends with Putin, but has worked to cement a deal that would award Russia with enough money to patch over budget deficits and greatly expand their military ambitions—a deal now held up by sanctions against Russia.
Russia says they were working with Trump.
The CIA says Russia was trying to elect Trump.
Harry Reid says the Trump campaign was coordinating on release of hacked documents.
President Obama says that the Trump campaign had a relationship with Russia.
There are so many strings to be pulled here. Any one of them might unravel the depth of Russian involvement in the Trump campaign, and the depth of Trump’s knowledge and cooperation. It could easily take months—years—to track down each connection.
But we don’t have years. We have at most a month, and in truth less than a week. After that, Donald Trump will put his own people in intelligence. Which will be the end of any investigations, and perhaps the end of much more.
Comments are closed on this story.