United States presidential elections of 2016
A dark cloud still hangs over the United States presidential elections of 2016 due to the unanswered questions about a possible Russian interference over the polls. Most people in the country, including the intelligence agencies, believe that the Russian government might have influenced the American voters to put in their favored candidate into the office. The allegations point to the Russian government commissioning people who hacked the American social media platforms to influence the outcome of the general elections. The hackers would fill the social media of American voters with pieces of information that would persuade them to either not vote or vote in one way. It is a consensus within half of the American population that Russians inadvertently pulled off a political and technological coup on the 2016 presidential elections. Contrastingly, almost half of the American population does not believe that Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential elections. The supporters of Donald Trump believe that the elections of 2016 represented the will of the American people and message that the country was ready for a change. President Donald Trump believes that American citizens had gotten tired of the political class. The president always criticized the political class, which had become part of the American establishment for centuries, and it was time to drain out the swamp as he put it in his own words. The president and his supporters have always termed the investigations into the possible Russian meddling with the 2016 presidential elections as a total witch-hunt, which is set out to paint his presidency negatively. The debate about Russian interference in the 2016 elections has created two opposing sides who believe they are all correct about the topic.
The people who support the notion that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 elections are mostly the Democrats and American intelligence agencies. The Central Intelligence Agency carried out a secret assessment which determined that Russia had interfered with the elections to ensure that Donald Trump emerged the winner in the 2016 presidential elections. The investigations with the intelligence agencies unearthed a connection between Russian masterminds and the Wikileaks organizations. Some days before the election, the Democratic National Convention was hacked, and American intelligence agencies believe that Russian masterminds provided Wikileaks with hacked emails in order to smear Hillary Clinton negatively to the electorates. A senator in the intelligence committee remarked, “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump elected.” The consensus among the senators in the United States pushed the White House under President Barrack Obama administration to carry out investigations into possible interference of the Russians in the 2016 elections. The Russians invaded social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with information related to the 2016 presidential elections, which most people believe helped sway a lot of voters towards one side. The Russians disguised themselves as members of particular communities such as African Americans, Latinos, and other communities in the United States to persuade voters to either not vote or vote towards a specific candidate. Such messages heavily influenced the undecided voters in America, therefore, making them vote for candidates proposed to them by the Russian hackers. The Russian trolls also took advantage of religious groups and military veterans’ families by preaching the pro-Trump messages to them to help twist their support. During the presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, most questions were asked to discredit Clinton was from her just recently hacked emails by the Russian trolls. The emails leaked private information about Hillary Clinton’s engagements with significant corporations around the world, which showed her charging hefty fees for her speeches. The Wikileaks emails hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign so bad that it gave Donald Trump the edge over her. With all these pieces of evidence, there has been a consensus among the general population in America that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential elections.
On the other hand, President Donald Trump and his supporters have questioned the veracity of the information from the intelligence community about Russian interference. The Trump transition team dismissed the Central Intelligence Agency assessments. The team spoke to the media, saying, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It is now time to move on and Make America Great Again”. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell also voiced his opinions about the intelligence community assessments casting doubt on the same in September 2016. President Donald Trump also rubbished the hacking claims attributed to Russia by stating that it could have happened from anywhere in the world. During the presentation to the Senate intelligence committee about the findings from the Russian investigations, there were a lot of disagreements because the investigations were inconclusive.
The main contention was that the intelligence agencies did not provide specific evidence on specific Russian officials who commissioned hackers to pass the hacked Democratic National Convention emails to Wikileaks organization. The head of the Wikileaks organization Julian Assange also denied the claim that it’s the Russian government that passed the hacked emails to his organization. The doubts about the intelligence community findings have also grown due to the reluctance of the White House to release the details of the assessment report from the Central Intelligence Agency. Republican Congressman Devin Nunes said, I’ll be the first one to come out and point at Russia if there is clear evidence, but there is no clear evidence – even now”. It has also baffled a lot of American citizens that Russia could hack one of the most protected countries in the world and influence its elections. America is believed to be the epitome of democracy, and it would be unbelievable that Russia could take advantage of them, even more, when they are exercising their civic duty.
In conclusion, a lot has been said about the Russian role in the 2016 presidential elections, which made Donald Trump president. The proponents of Russian involvement have put forward arguments that show that they were involved in influencing the American voters towards Trump. On the other hand, the opponents believe that all these allegations are hearsay and witch-hunt aimed at discrediting the presidency of Donald Trump. The intelligence community has provided their assessment to the Senate intelligence committee, which, however, has not been conclusive. The inconclusive part of the central intelligence agency investigations has thrown doubt on the possible interference of Russians with the American elections. It is only natural to believe allegations with proof, and because there is no tangible evidence in the Russian investigations, it is hard to believe all the allegations.