This accusation is not one to be taken likely, for obvious reasons like national security and such. The issue of hacking and interference is one that has been brought up and confirmed by the CIA and the intelligence community, and has been backed by a chorus of capitol hill elites- including GOP senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. In a two-party system where the two parties appear to agree on virtually nothing, this kind of bipartisan consensus that some type of interference was attempted or still in the works is miraculous and very telling of the salience of the situation. However, Trump (who is on the good end of the supposed Russian interference deal) has denied any possibility of such occurring and has ridden it off as more sabotaging ploys from the biased liberal media.
What does this all mean? What are we even talking about?
According to Jeremey Diamond for CNN, back in October of 2016 the US government announced it was fairly confident Russia orchestrated the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations of the Democratic Party. The first public understanding of this was a little vague, and for the most part still might be. At that time it was announced that the hacks led to the public dissemination of thousands of emails which included damaging rhetoric about the Democratic party and their nominee, Hilary Clinton. The breaking of the news in October startled many that put so much faith in our democratic system, and the damning new information so close to the election had potential to really sway the polls. However, at first, intelligence agencies were not as bold as to say these efforts by the Russians were an intentional act to put Trump at the forefront for the presidency. That all changed in December 2016 when the CIA firmly told a group of top senators that Russia's hacks were explicitly carried out with the intention of helping Trump.
That is no small accusation by any means, so what brought the CIA to such a conclusion? What are they even concluding in the first place here? Their more complete analysis of evidence finds that hackers not only released the emails, but breached GOP individuals and organization in the months prior to the election. These include Republican House members and leaders of groups and non-profits in close proximity with the GOP. Something I found interesting (and maybe a little ironic) is that there is evidence of Russian digital footprints funneling money into "troll farms" spreading fake news about Clinton. Sad. Fake news and alternative facts are really prevalent today it appears.
During Obama's last couple weeks in office he made a statement to NPR about the severity of the situation and the need for very calculated next steps for America, even going as far as to say this is a "cyber Cold War." He told NPR, "I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing." However, as the clock ran out on his window of power to make this action he spoke of, it now shifted into the hands of Donald Trump- who denies the entire situation. That's right. He thinks the CIA is lying. About national security. And the sanctity of our democracy. Lying.
In a very intelligible quote from President Trump after the news, he says "I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it. I don't know why and I think it's just -- you know, they talked about all sorts of things. Every week it's another excuse...No, I don't believe that at all," Trump said. "They have no idea if it's Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. I mean they have no idea."
So, even if our president thinks that the intelligence breach is more likely to have been orchestrated by "someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds", there is actually consensus among top ranking republicans and democratic in Congress that Russia was involved in some facet of the election. This support in congress is essentially leading to an agreed front to investigate further the connections with Russian intelligence and take action accordingly. While Trump thinks this entire situation is aimed at delegitimizing his win, he is mistaken in a horrifying way. If more truth and evidence arises, this situation will delegitimize the basic principles and democratic practices with which America has upheld and fought for. This has the potential to reshape future US foreign policy and alter the layout of our relations with other countries, particularly Russia. This kind of uncertainty about the motives of the cyber attacks brings back a Cold War era chill that will absolutely have some kind of affect on America in the coming months.
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