Jophiel wrote:
I don't bother linking half the time because most people here don't care and know I'm getting it from a standard news organization and Gbaji will just throw a fit and deny anything is legitimate anyway.
I tried to find the quote you used, and couldn't. Not that I spent a ton of time, but still. If you've bothered to quote something, why not link to the source you're quoting?
Quote:
The Director of Intelligence's comprehensive report states that Putin not only wanted Clinton to not win (or to be damaged) but had a clear preference for Trump to win as a politician he knew would be favorable to pro-Russian policies. This was in the report. But, of course, that doesn't count in Gbaji-World.
And it also says
this:
Intelligence Report wrote:
Moscow’s approach evolved over the course of the campaign based on Russia’s understanding of the electoral prospects of the two main candidates. When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign began to focus more on undermining her future presidency.
The language they use is very specific, and not intended to be expanded on, exaggerated, or inferred. You'll note that they never once say "they wanted Trump to win". The language is this:
Quote:
We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump
Of course they did. He was the underdog through the entire process. The had a clear preference, not on who they wanted to become president (that's nowhere in the document) but on
who they were helping. They meddled in the election, with this goal:
Quote:
Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.
It's pretty freaking clear but you've never bothered to read the document, despite me linking to it multiple times. I suppose you just prefer to use the much more selective quotes you find in news articles.
That's the stated goal as the intelligence community defines it. Again. It's not "they wanted Trump to be president".
Even this statement:
Quote:
We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.
Bolding mine.
Doesn't say "they wanted Trump to win". They wanted to give the guy on the bottom the best chance, specifically to weaken whomever won. It would not have mattered who was in which place. That's what you guys aren't getting. You assume the thought process was "we like Trump, so let's help him win". That's not it though. It was more like "Let's ***** with the US election by attacking whomever is in the lead so that whomever wins will be damaged and have a weaker presidency". Again, note the language "by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him". They were not pushing positive messages about Trump, but negative messages about Clinton.
I get it. You desperately want/need to paint Trump as some sort of Manchurian Candidate for the Russians. But that's not what the intelligence assessments actually say.
What's funny to me about all of this is that the whole "help Trump" thing has
always been about throwing a wrench into the election process and not really about wanting Trump in the White House. I recall reading more than a few editorials on Left leaning media sources back in late Summer of 2015 arguing that liberals (in and out of the media) should support Trump in the primary, since that would give Clinton the best shot. The theory being that Trump was so bad that Clinton would just waltz into the White House. And I recall commenting on this, and how the media was soft balling him, giving coverage of his outrageous stuff but not really condemning it. Talk about a case of getting what you wished for (or were pretending to wish for in this case).
It looks like the Russians were more or less doing the same thing. Different motivations, but again their support for Trump wasn't about Trump. It was about Clinton. It was always about Clinton.
Edited, Aug 7th 2018 1:27pm by gbaji