Despite Lack of Evidence, Dems Demand Russia ‘Stop’ Trying to Hack Election

Dems Have Been Accusing Russia of Such a Plot All Summer

Capping off a summer in which a substantial part of the Democratic Party’s campaign for president has been accusing Russia of plotting to get the Republican nominee elected, a pair of Democrats who are ranking members on their respective intelligence committees, Rep. Adam Schiff (D – CA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), are once again, despite any publicly available evidence to support the allegations, presenting claims Russia is hacking the US election as an unquestionable fact.

They went on in the statement to claim that the only “the very senior levels” could’ve ordered such a plot, which again isn’t proven to exist, and followed it up with a demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately stop all efforts to try to hack and/or influence the US elections.

Putin obviously can’t “stop” something he isn’t doing, and Russia has repeatedly insisted they aren’t doing anything of the sort and don’t care who wins the November election. The FBI confirmed recently that there is an investigation ongoing, but that they were as-yet unable to provide concrete evidence that the plot is real.

The joint statement is unlikely to produce any real reaction from Russia, so long as there remains no evidence, and the ongoing FBI investigation doesn’t seem to be digging up much either. The statement, however, does bring the Russia narrative back into the headlines, which appears to be a major goal of the party in general.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.