What did the Russians get for their investment in the American election of 2016? We’re still finding out. I always believed they simply wanted to help elect a compromised, weak president. Given their approach, the success of their operation did not necessarily depend on Trump actually winning, even if it was their preferred outcome. Either they would end up with Trump or with a significantly weakened President Clinton — a win-win for Putin.
Trump followed up on this CIA acknowledgement by floating a trial balloon for a potential Secretary of State nominee with ties to Putin — a very Trumpian double-down. We will see how serious Senate Republicans were about all their complaints that Obama was overly obeisant to Putin (and to Iran for that matter) based on how they handle this confirmation. (Of course, that’s assuming Trump isn’t doing some kind of dramatic head-fake.)
Beyond actual policy outcomes, there is also clear evidence in the polling that the Russian government bought itself good will among Republican voters. This is a very bad thing. Republicans were actually much more skeptical of Putin than Democrats in 2014. By August 2016 their feelings toward him had become significantly less negative, shifting from a net minus-66 to just a net minus-27. This is especially disturbing at a time when the U.S. needs a clear mind in plotting its path forward in Syria, and when the weakness of Russia’s economy could motivate Putin to engage in still more unprovoked aggression.
In sum, I don’t understand how anyone is acting like they just now realized Russia tried to help Trump win.
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