© ReutersU.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she had "grave" concern that Russia may be interfering in the U.S. election.
US intelligence officials are being quoted in the Washington Post today as confirming a major investigation ongoing "looking very closely at" allegations, which appear to primarily be driven by top Democratic Party officials, that Russia might be trying to "influence" the US election.
The allegations date back as far as the Democratic National Convention, during which party officials tried to change the focus on WikiLeaks releases of hacked emails by claiming the Russians did it as a plot to get Republican nominee Donald Trump elected.
This talking point has since been at the fore in the campaign ever since, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D - NV) asking the FBI for a formal investigation, claiming that there is "extensive" evidence of a Russian plot to falsify election results.
Interestingly, while officials confirmed that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is now heading such an investigation, they also conceded that the evidence really isn't there, saying that they not only lack "definitive proof" of any Russian tampering, but lack evidence of any Russian intent to even attempt to do so.
Comment: C'mon guys -- since when has a stark lack of evidence ever stopped you from accusing the Russkies of anything?! Show some back bone here! Our ability to further demonize Russia may be at stake!
Take this example from Hillary, for gawd's sake:
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has expressed "grave" concern that Russia may be interfering in the U.S. election through cyberattacks on the Democratic Party and state voting systems.
"The fact that our intelligence professionals are now studying this and taking it seriously raises some grave questions about potential Russian interference with our electoral process," Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane on September 5.
"We are facing a very serious concern. We've never had a foreign adversarial power be already involved in our electoral process," she said.
Clinton suggested her opponent, Republican candidate Donald Trump, had a "bizarre attraction" to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other "dictators," and was either working with Russia or encouraging Russia to interfere.
"I think it's quite intriguing that this activity has happened around the time Trump became the nominee," she said. Trump "has generally parroted what is a Putin-Kremlin line."
The comments from the officials center primarily on sheer supposition, that if Russia wanted to intervene in the vote, and if they actually attempted to do so, it might not so much be to change the results as to raise doubts about the vote's credibility in general.
Congressional officials, and their aides, keep talking about this plot as though it's an actual thing, forming an echo chamber in which they can claim "everyone knows" the plot is real, because they keep telling one another that.
Ironically, this is going to end up meaning that doubts will be raised about the vote, because of the "Russian plot," even if the plot itself doesn't actually exist, and if nothing was ever attempted. It also likely means the probe outcome will be less a matter of evidence, but much like the probe itself more a question of political expediency.
Comment: And also, for heaven's sake -- don't let objectivity or rationality cloud your thinking!
State Duma MP Irina Yarovaya said that Hillary Clinton's latest allegations that Russia could somehow interfere with US presidential polls could be a publicity stunt or a real phobia, but either way, they severely damage her reputation as a politician.
"Clinton's panic really raises some questions, but these are only questions about her. It is hard to tell if this was a strange statement, a political stunt performed by a self-doubting candidate or a persistent phobia. But for a candidate in a national presidential election, any inadequacy of assessments becomes a serious blow to their reputation and a hint for the voters to be more wary," RIA Novosti quoted Yarovaya as saying.
The comment came soon after Hillary Clinton expressed "grave concern" over alleged Russian interference with the US electoral process, urging both Democratic Party allies and Republican opponents to share this concern.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Bloomberg that although he did not know who was behind the US Democratic Party hack, it definitely was not the work of any Russian organization.
Putin added that he considered the content given to the public much more important than the actual group behind the hacking. "There's no need to distract the public's attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it," the Russian leader said.
In July, Wikileaks released about 20,000 emails and more than 8,000 attachments from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Many of the emails indicate that top DNC officials were hostile to the Bernie Sanders campaign and favored Hillary Clinton. The leak eventually prompted the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and several other officials.
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