You could get one of Putin's intel officers to admit it right in front of him and Putin would still deny it. You aren't going to change Putin's behavior. Bush couldn't, Obama couldn't, and now Trump is trying is a different approach. Putin will be Putin & he'll put Russia first.
Putin does not care what our president (any of them) has thought of him nor does he care if you have proof of his doing something wrong. The only way to beat Putin at something is do it better than he does.
Putin could care less who wins in US elections, what he cares about is damaging the winner badly enough to paralyze them in scandals and investigations. The intelligence community also assessed Putin never believed Trump could win the election. He suspected HRC would win.
Putin expected HRC to win, but he thought that she would be so mired in scandal and investigations that she would not be able to effectively govern. Also, Putin has more information that he could release on HRC had she won that is far worse than what was released during 2016.
Putin's actions before, during, and after the election prove this by how he shifted from HRC to Trump. He thought Trump was a lost cause. Amplifying HRC's old scandals as well as new ones, real or imagined and Putin easily manipulated the US media into covering it.
The media also bears blame in HRC's loss by its enthusiasm in pushing Hillary to believe she could win states like TX, GA, MS, UT, and AZ. This compounded the effect of the Russia effort into not only damaging her, but also causing her to believe the media adoration.
The media continues to play directly into Putin's hands and adding to the discord that Russia hoped to sow within our society. Putin doesn't have to manipulate Trump. He just has to continue manipulating the US media.
When China hacked OPM in 2014, that should have been an eye opener for John Brennan, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, & the entire Obama national security team that this showed potential weaknesses in our electoral process. OPM allowed access to millions of Americans' personal info.
What Chinese hackers did with this information is still not fully understood. They certainly didn't steal all that information for sh*ts & grins. However, it should have amped up our efforts to ensure our voting records and locations were secure from a similar attack from anyone.
If you want to prevent electronic interference into our election process then our IC and election commissions must work to ensure the greatest possible cyber security. Media must stop replaying RT over and over. I saw CNN replay something from RT over and over during 2016.
The US has to counter Russia's message just as we did all throughout the Cold War and ensure our national security to include election security. This was ignored by the Obama Administration or not taken seriously.
