The New York Post reports this morning that top Republicans are demanding that the CIA provide hard evidence that Russia intervened in the election on behalf of Donald Trump. The article quotes Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer as having asked, “What proof does anyone have that they [the Russians] affected the outcome?”
It’s a good question, but it’s just one of many that will need to be answered should the current grumblings on the Left metamorphose into a call for a “re-vote” or some other extreme proposal.
Granted, this revelation by the CIA provides a unique situation in the history of American presidential elections (as far as any of us knows). But it seems the nation’s leaders would be better served working to ensure against such a development happening again in the future, not looking backward at what is now a done deal.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
If the Dems were to try to force a “do-over” of the election, here are some of the ticklish issues that would arise. Let’s imagine for a moment that intelligence sources can provide a concrete link between Russian cyberspies and WikiLeaks. Team Clinton has never been disputed the contents of the damning emails that were made public via WikiLeaks drops, some of which show collusion between the DNC and the mainstream media. Are voters merely to be told to strike this information from their memories as they go about casting new ballots? If not, what other measures can be devised to ensure a fairer outcome this time?
Assuming that the link can be made, does the government not have the same obligation to get to the bottom of leaks that were intended to damage the candidacy of Donald Trump? Consider in this regard the New York Times’s release of stolen Trump tax documents in late October. Shouldn’t some effort be made to determine whether the Clinton campaign obtained these documents and handed them over to a high-visibility news organization that openly backed the Democrat?
Finally, wouldn’t Trump have needed to be involved in the alleged Russian leaks for his victory to be nullified?
