Did a Russian operative actually vote?
Much of the criticism about the long overdue firing May 9 of Mr. Comey centers around investigations into ties between President Trump and the Russians. Politicians and media are up in arms over the Russians trying to influence the U.S. presidential elections.
Of course. Influencing another country's political outcomes is nothing the US would ever consider (wink). If the Russians did try to influence the election, they would have needed to get in line with any number of groups or PACs that threw billions of dollars at the race. In total, 2,389 separate PACs spent a total of $1.1 billion to influence dollars.
Assuming that they did try to influence the election, what did they exactly do? If they did hack computers and facilitated the release of private documents, were the documents false or fabricated? Were they lies? I have not seen anyone present evidence that any falsified information was provided by the Russians. If they consulted or advised people connected to the Trump campaign, didn't many, many experts try to do the same thing?
I could turn on any television during the election and see any number of campaign advisers who were working with or wished they were working with a campaign offering their advice to the candidates. Is anyone aware of any Russian operative actually stepping into a polling booth and pulling the lever for Donald Trump? It is my understanding that at the conclusion of an expensive and divisive campaign, that over 135 million American voters cast their vote.
Yes, the Russians should stay our of our affairs; we should stay out of theirs and we should not have Russian agents on the inside of our power structure pulling levers for their interests over ours. If that is happening, let's root them out of government. However, the voters ultimately reviewed all of the information they were given by whatever means and voted their consciences. I suppose we could have indicated the source of the information by putting a Russian flag on each piece that they helped bring to light, but I doubt that would have affected voter outcome.
Gary Hayden
Lombard