The Patriot Post® · The Left Blames Russia

The Obama administration, Hillary Clinton’s campaign, big media and the left-wing attack machine are going all out to delegitimize the election of Donald Trump. They are claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “hacked” the election, with the specific intent of electing Donald Trump.

These forces actually think they can still stop Donald Trump and Mike Pence from taking office. Michael Moore suggested as much last week. But even if they fail in preventing a Trump presidency, they hope to ensure he is a damaged, compromised, illegitimate president who is unable to lead.

Here are my observations:

The hacking of the United States government, intelligence agencies, infrastructure and many other key segments of our economy has been going on for many years. It is outrageous. But it accelerated during the Obama years with virtually no consequences. The suspected culprits have been China, Iran, Russia and individual anti-American groups not working for any government, as well as others.

It was widely reported last year that China had stolen the personal information of virtually every current federal employee, as well as many past employees. Yet the Obama administration did virtually nothing.

Weekend stories by The New York Times and Washington Post suggested that the U.S. government had concluded that Russia hacked Democratic National Committee computers in order to release damaging information that would hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. But there is no consensus about this within the government. Both articles quoted unnamed officials. Hearings should be held and officials should testify under oath.

The CIA believes Russia was trying to help Trump. The FBI does not. The FBI’s position is similar to its conclusion in the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

While it was likely there was foreign hacking of Hillary’s server, the FBI couldn’t produce evidence that foreign agents seized information. Today the FBI is saying that it is likely there was foreign influence in the election, but it can’t say with certainty that Russia was the culprit. During the election, the left hailed the FBI’s muddled exoneration of Clinton, but now it is blasting the bureau.

These news reports suggest that the Obama administration is exploiting government investigations in order to advance its own political self-interests. The Obama administration politicized the IRS and the Pentagon. Has it also politicized the CIA?

I have seen no evidence that information from Wikileaks and the DNC leaks had any measurable impact on the election. Exit polling showed people voted on the economy, national security and restoring American strength.

What hurt Hillary Clinton most was Hillary Clinton. Her own mishandling of classified information on her private server seriously damaged her credibility among the voters. Vladimir Putin didn’t make her do that. Neither did China or Iran.

Hillary decided that there was one set of rules for everyone else on classified information and one set of rules for her. Then she engaged in a three-year lying binge worthy of Kremlin disinformation. Putin did not make Hillary call half of the country “deplorable” and he did not force her to fail to campaign in key states like Wisconsin.

No one is alleging that election tallies or voting machines were compromised by any foreign power. Earlier this year, someone did try to hack into elections offices in Arizona and Illinois. The effort essentially failed.

But take note of this: There was an attempt to hack the Georgia voting system. Not by Putin, but by someone at the Department of Homeland Security. DHS admitted Friday that it is investigating the possibility that the hack was committed by a rogue employee. What was that employee’s motive? Was he an Obama political appointee?

The White House’s outrage over alleged Russian influence in the election is ironic given all that the Obama administration did to interfere in Israel’s election and defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Political operatives connected to Obama’s campaign went to Israel to register Palestinian Muslim voters. And the State Department funded anti-Netanyahu campaign efforts because Bibi Netanyahu confronted Obama on a variety of issues, including the sellout to Iran.

In the middle of the Brexit vote, Obama went to England and warned British citizens that if they voted to leave the European Union, they would go to the back of the line in future U.S. trade deals. His remarks outraged many British voters and some pundits believe that Obama’s interference contributed to the surprising result.

And what is the left trying to prove? That Trump is pro-Putin? Well, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton famously tried to “reset” our foreign policy to be more pro-Russia. In 2012, Obama promised to show Putin greater “flexibility” if he was re-elected. Given that Russia still occupies Crimea and has now moved into Syria, it is hard to imagine an administration being any softer on Russia than Obama and Clinton were.

It is very suspicious that Obama announced an investigation last week in which the results will be delivered to him before he leaves office on January 20th. This would be another case of the administration investigating the administration. There is only one purpose in my view — to discredit Trump and Pence just as they take the oath of office.

There will be an investigation in the new administration. It will inevitably fall to Rep. Mike Pompeo, President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the CIA, and to various congressional committees to sort through all the details.

One of the issues that should be thoroughly investigated is the malfeasance of the Obama administration over the past eight years, which may have led Russia or some other foreign power to conclude that it could try to interfere in our elections.

Priebus Pushes Back

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, now a top advisor to President-elect Trump, did battle Sunday with NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press.” Watch the exchange here.

Todd used a New York Times claim that Russian operatives hacked both the DNC and RNC but only released embarrassing emails from the DNC. That, according to Todd, was proof that Russia was trying to hurt Hillary Clinton.

Priebus blew Todd’s argument out of the water by informing his host and the viewing audience that the FBI investigated the RNC’s computer system and found no evidence of hacking. The Times lied and Todd repeated its fake news.

Christmas Carnage

How do we know it is Christmas time? Churches in the Middle East are being bombed and attacked.

Over the weekend, a Muslim suicide bomber killed at least 22 people and wounded 49 in a Coptic church in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian officials believe the suicide bomber may have been connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic extremist group that was banned in 2014.

American Values, my public policy organization, will continue to speak out against Christian persecution in the so-called “Islamic world.” I look forward to working with an administration that is serious about defending religious liberty and defeating the Islamic supremacists who are causing so much death and destruction all around the world.