THREAD
Now that it is clear that Russia’s military hacked the DNC and DCCC...
Now that it is clear that Russia’s military hacked the DNC and DCCC...
1. There is no question that the Trump campaign’s Foreign Policy Advisor and his Campaign Manager, as well as Trump’s own son and son-in-law, were aware that Russia possessed this stolen information.
2. There is no question that after his family members and campaign staff were made aware that the Russians had obtained this stolen information, Donald Trump publicly exhorted the Russian military to steal more information during his July 27th speech.
3. There is no question that the Russian military released the stolen information through Wikileaks, and attempted to hack Clinton’s mail server after Trump’s request to do so.
4. There is no question that this stolen information badly damaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The head of the DNC was forced to resign, it cast a pall over the convention, and remained a significant “scandal” until Election Day, eroding Clinton’s support within her own party.
5. There is no question Donald Trump used this stolen information repeatedly to undermine Clinton’s campaign and repeatedly thanked Wikileaks for divulging it.
6. There is no question that the 2016 election result was an astonishing fluke in that Hillary’s large popular vote win (by almost 3 million votes) was nullified by razor thin (80,000) vote margin spread over three states.
7. There is no question that the Russian hack and its subsequent release changed the course of the election.
8. This assessment does not even take into account the Russian campaign of information warfare on social media or its many attempts to hack America’s voting infrastructure, or the allegations of illicit political donations by Kremlin-linked entities.
9. Absent the actions taken by the Russia military one cannot reasonably suggest that Trump would have won the election. He barely won it with all their help.
All this being the case, one would have to strive mightily to avoid the conclusion that a foreign adversary changed the outcome of an American election.
