U.S. Officials Just Intercepted Russian Officials Bragging About Trump
U.S. intelligence officials have discovered that high-level Russian officials openly celebrated Donald Trump’s questionable victory in the electoral college, according to intercepted communications.
The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the country’s cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election — contributed to the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow’s efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House.
This and other bombshell evidence is being delivered in a 50 page report this week to President Obama by our nation’s top spy officials, according to the Washington Post. This report will detail the extent of Russian cyberwarfare efforts to disrupt the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, which they achieved by hacking into the email servers of the Democratic National Convention and the private emails of top Clinton campaign officials like John Podesta.
“The Russians felt pretty good about what happened on Nov. 8 and they also felt pretty good about what they did” says a senior intelligence official. While it makes sense to see a geopolitical rival celebrate the fact that we just elected an ignorant, easily manipulatable buffoon who stands to profit from closer ties to the Russian Federation, it also is further evidence that Russia interfered in our election to the detriment of us all.
President-elect Donald Trump, for his part, has sided with Wikileaks and its head, Julian Assange, against the information provided by the men and women whose job it is to keep this country safe.
Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have "hacking defense" like the RNC has and why have they not responded to the terrible……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to H). A total double standard! Media, as usual, gave them a pass.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Russian politicians have already confirmed that these cyberattacks were carried out in support of Trump; Vladimir Putin himself ordered them to spite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While the contents of the emails obtained by the Russian hackers were not anything out of the ordinary, when combined with the relentless propaganda efforts put forth by Russian online trolls and the astounding ignorance of the American populace, you have a situation where over 50% of Trump voters believed that John Podesta’s emails were about satanic blood/semen/breast milk “spirit cooking” rituals and secret pedophilia sex rings. Half. That likely did have a significant effect on our election, and even if it didn’t, the point remains. Yes, it might be enormously hypocritical of us to protest, but a rival foreign power meddled in the democratic processes of the United States of America and that must be taken as a violation of our national sovereignty and responded to as such.
The desire by Republicans, who are already foaming at the mouth to gut the social safety net and the American healthcare system, to discard decades of toxic hyperpatriotism and sweep this under the rug must be interpreted for what it is – treason. Trump may have technically won, but we must never give him the legitimacy he craves so desperately.
