Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
foreign meddling campaign
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in order to increase political instability in the United States and to damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald J. Trump, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein. A January 2017 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that Russian leadership favored presidential candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, and that Russian president Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to harm Clinton's electoral chances and "undermine public faith in the US democratic process.
This theme article is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it.
Putin doesn't need to undermine democracy in the U.S. because first you have to have a democracy to undermine. The U.S. is a capitalist dictatorship with phony elections the majority don't participate in. I mean, we can't even get real choice beyond the two capitalist parties.
Ajamu Baraka, Twitter (27 February 2018)
Whether or not Trump himself or anyone in his orbit personally colluded or conspired with the Russians about their interference is something Mueller will no doubt disclose at some point, but there remains one incontrovertible truth: In 2016, Russia, a hostile foreign adversary, attacked the United States of America. We know that they did it. We have proof. The F.B.I. is trying to hold people accountable for it. And yet Trump, the president whom the Constitution establishes as the commander in chief, has repeatedly waffled on whether Russia conducted the attack and has refused to forcefully rebuke them for it, let alone punish them for it. ... Instead, Trump has repeatedly attacked the investigation as a witch hunt.
Charles M. Blow, Trump, Treasonous Traitor (July 15, 2018), The New York Times
Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that's almost a joke. First of all, if you're interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Israeli intervention in US elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president's policies - what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015.
Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky on Mass Media Obsession with Russia & the Stories Not Being Covered in the Trump Era (27 July 2018)
[T]he simplistic narrative that basically imagines that a bunch of subliterate-in-English trolls posting mostly static and sort of absurd advertising could have influenced American public opinion to such an extent that it fundamentally changed American politics is ridiculous on the face of it. And the fact that we're sort of falling deeper and deeper into that vision of the story is a little nuts.
Masha Gessen, in an interview with David Greene of NPR "Journalists Argue Russian Interference Has Been Exaggerated" (1 March 2018)
Syria is only part of a much larger problem. It is remarkable the extent to which Israeli concerns dominate those of the United States, which now has a foreign policy that often is not even remotely connected to actual U.S. interests. Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russia's alleged interference in America's political system while looking the other way when Israel operates aggressively in the open and does much more damage. Netanyahu and his crew of unsavory cutthroats are hardly ever cited for their malignant influence over America's political class and media. Bomb Syria? Sure. After all, it's good for Israel.
Philip Giraldi, "Whose Wars? Israel continues to wag the dog for Middle Eastern wars" (17 April 2018)The Unz Review.
US hypocrisy in plain sight. The same democratic party outraged over alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election is now openly intervening in the affairs of Venezuela, supporting regime change and backing a self-proclaimed 'interim president'.
Eva Golinger, Twitter (23 January 2019)
The Democratic Party—seeking to blame its election defeat on Russian "interference" rather than the grotesque income inequality, the betrayal of the working class, the loss of civil liberties, the deindustrialization and the corporate coup d'état that the party helped orchestrate—attacks Assange as a traitor, although he is not a U.S. citizen. Nor is he a spy. He is not bound by any law I am aware of to keep U.S. government secrets. He has not committed a crime....
Chris Hedges, "Crucifying Julian Assange" (2018)
Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government's effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. And... this deserves the attention of every American.
Robert Mueller, Robert Mueller Testimony before House Judiciary Committee (July 24, 2019) statement by the Former Special Counsel & 6th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections&oldid=2681755"