That the election was a month ago and that there is a paucity of evidence appears insufficient in ending the Russian hacking scandal surrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s election, with Friday evening’s reports of the CIA reiterating the claims, while offering no new evidence, riling everyone up all over again.
Senate hawks from both parties are pushing for a new round of “full investigations” into the CIA’s claims. That the CIA’s claims were not echoed by other intelligence agencies didn’t matter much, with outgoing Sen. Harry Reid (D – NV) accusing the FBI director of covering up the intelligence on the matter, claiming he “helped Trump get elected” in doing so.
Trump has dismissed the allegations, noting the claims are coming from the same people who falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. This also fueled condemnation from a number of hawks, who insist Trump should not reject intelligence community reports.
In practice, a lot of the Republicans have been pushing for continued hostility toward Russia, and seem to be hoping that the allegations, if kept alive, will oblige Trump to keep Russia at arm’s length to avoid looking like his rapprochement is payback for election interference.
The Democrats are no less eager to keep the US firmly hostile toward Russia, but some like Rep. David Cicilline (D – RI) are hoping it can go even further than that, hoping the scandal, if it keeps getting more publicity, will be sufficient to shift the electoral college vote away from Trump, potentially reversing last month’s result.
Exactly.
This is motivated on the Republican side by all the things driving the New Cold War, defense spending, and use of American government for big business interest including but not limited to Big Oil.
This is motivated on the Democratic side by the same things. They are no different, no better, than Republicans in being tools of the elite.
But in addition, it is die hard denial supporting Hillary against all reality. We need to be aware that after such denial comes anger. They are already turning furious. They will be dangerous, war provoking dangerous, McCarthy-like dangerous, before this passes.
The powers-that-be are not going quietly. Not a fan of Trump whatsoever but he clearly presents a threat to whatever interests the CIA has, even in his snubbing their briefings.