Ex-CIA Chief Debunks Trump: ‘Implausible’ Russia Didn’t Influence Votes

Ex-CIA Chief Debunks Trump: ‘Implausible’ Russia Didn’t Influence Votes

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com

 

Former CIA Director John Brennan hit back at Trump’s claim Friday that “[t]he results of the election were not impacted” by Russian interference, calling it “implausible” that at least some votes were not influenced.

Brennan’s remarks came just hours after special counsel Robert Mueller released an explosive indictment charging 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations for their role in an expansive effort to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Predictably, Trump responded to the indictment by fleeing from the press and refusing to answer reporters’ questions. The only comments Trump has made about the stunning revelations came in the form of tweet in which he falsely claimed that the indictment exonerated him and proved that Russia’s efforts didn’t influence the election results.

“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” Trump tweeted Friday afternoon. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!”

Less than 20 minutes after Trump posted the tweet, Brennan took to Twitter to give his own take on the indictment — a take that completely shut down Trump’s desperate claims:

Far from exonerating Trump, the 37-page indictment handed down on Friday completely undermines Trump’s frequent claims that the Russia investigation is a “hoax” or a “witch-hunt.

According to the charges in the indictment, Russians working for the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency created false American personas and stole the identities of real Americans as part of an effort aimed at “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump (‘Trump Campaign’) and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”

The Russian operatives named in the indictment allegedly organized pro-Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton rallies — and they knew to focus on swing states, thanks to help from apparently “unwitting” Americans, including people associated with the Trump campaign.

“Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities,” the indictment says.

Furthermore, despite Trump’s claim that the indictment proves that his campaign “did nothing wrong,” that’s not actually what it says — and the evidence clearly shows this isn’t the case.

Four former Trump associates have already been charged in the investigation, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Most importantly, the investigation is far from over. As Bloomberg News reported on Friday, “Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors haven’t concluded their investigation into whether President Donald Trump or any of his associates helped Russia interfere in the 2016 election.”

Trump can tweet whatever he wants — but unfortunately for him, he can’t change the facts.

 

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

North Carolina GOP's Extremist Nominees Excite Democratic Strategists

Michele Morrow

In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly missed capturing North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes, losing the state by a slim 1.4-percentage-point margin. But that was nearly four years ago. Before the Dobbs decision. Before Donald Trump’s 91 felony indictments. And before last week, when the state’s GOP voters nominated a guy who favorably quotes Hitler, has compared LGBTQ+ people to insects and larvae, and thinks a six-week abortion ban isn’t quite extreme enough for governor. Tar Heel State Republicans also nominated another extremist, Michele Morrow, for superintendent of the state’s schools.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}