Posted on 05/24/2018 4:03:54 PM PDT by Kaslin
Obama’s former spy chief, James Clapper, is on a roll as of late. The ex-Director of National Intelligence has come to the defense of the intelligence community. Last week, it was reported that Stefan Halper, a longtime CIA operative and Cambridge University professor, spied on the Trump campaign, trying to make contacts with George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and Sam Clovis. Yet, to Clapper, this isn’t spying. It was just a confidential source trying to glean information under false pretenses to see if there was any Russian collusion—and so far, there hasn’t been any evidence to suggest the Kremlin was tipping the scales. Oh, and it was a good thing that the FBI did this during the election. Well, now he’s taking it a step further. Despite multiple politicians involved in the investigation into Russian collusion on the Hill, Clapper says the Russians “decided” the election. And obviously by extension, he’s referring to President Trump. Also, the Mueller probe has yet to find any evidence of said collusion. Clapper made these remarks on PBS NewsHour Wednesday:
Russia 'turned' election for Trump, Clapper believes
Judy Woodruff [Host]: One of the things you write very — or have spoken about, I should say, in addition to writing about it very candidly is how you have concluded after what happened in 2016 that the Russians not only affected — tried to affect the election, but you said they actually did affect the outcome.James Clapper: Yes.
Judy Woodruff: What did you mean?
James Clapper: Well, first, I need to make clear that, when we did our formal intelligence community assessment in January of 2017, we didn’t make any call at all about whether the Russians affected the outcome of the election. We didn’t have the authority, charter or capability to do that.
Since I left the government, though, as a private citizen, it’s what I would call my informed opinion that, given the massive effort the Russians made, and the number of citizens that they touched, and the variety and the multidimensional aspects of what they did to influence opinion and affect the election, and given the fact that it turned on less than 80,000 votes in three states, to me, it just exceeds logic and credulity that they didn’t affect the election, and it’s my belief they actually turned it.
former Dir of National Intelligence James Clapper says he's personally concluded Russians not only influenced but DECIDED outcome of 2016 election: "80 thousand votes in 3 states" @NewsHour tonight— Judy Woodruff (@JudyWoodruff) May 23, 2018
Weird because Obama assured us no such thing was possible. https://t.co/VCPMJzRijv— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) May 24, 2018
“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections." -Barack Obama (October 2016)— Magilla Guerrilla (@jmkg95) May 24, 2018
Okay—leaving out the shoddy collusion claims, you have got to be kidding me. We’re now rehashing claims that were negated by Facebook and others. For starters, it’s not like the Russian troll farm operation to influence voters was a massive effort. It was a $100,000 effort, very small in the grand scheme of things, where presidential races are now $1 billion ventures. And did you see some of these ads, like Jesus arm wrestling Satan? It’s a joke. The fact that the institutional integrity of the U.S., and that of our election system, would be upended by a small social media campaign is abjectly ridiculous. Also, throughout most of 2016, everyone had pretty much made up their minds about which candidate they were going to vote for come Election Day. Russia didn’t alter vote tallies; The Washington Post had good pieces about how hard it is to hack/rig an election.
“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections,” said former President Obama in October of 2016.
So, as with most who feed the liberal echo chamber that Russia colluded with the Trump team, or that Russia altered vote tallies, or that Russia’s influence tilted the election, it seems Mr. Clapper is approaching the unserious camp on this issue.
There is no way Trump won Ohio with just GOP votes, the same goes for Michigan and Wisconsin. For months, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) was warning her party that Trump could win her state. He did. He spoke to their issues on jobs, trade, and job protection. He positioned himself as a cheerleader for America; he had an economic agenda. Clinton did not. So, besides going insane on Russia interference, maybe think about the millions of Obama voters who flipped for Trump. The sour grapes over this election are becoming biblical in size from left-wingers concerning their whining. Clinton lost. She’s not coming back. She will never be president. And by the looks of it, most of your 2020 class isn’t much to write home about either.
“Since I left the government, though, as a private citizen, it’s what I would call my informed opinion that, given the massive effort the Russians made, and the number of citizens that they touched, and the variety and the multidimensional aspects of what they did to influence opinion and affect the election, and given the fact that it turned on less than 80,000 votes in three states, to me, it just exceeds logic and credulity that they didn’t affect the election, and it’s my belief they actually turned it.”
The first part of Clapper’s error is that there is no evidence whatsoever that any Russian effort was a factor swaying 80,000 votes in three states from Billary, Inc. to Trump, merely because that was the popular vote difference in the three states Clapper is referring to. Correlation is not and does not prove causation. But worse is his estimation of the worth of the Russian effort, against those 80,000 votes, or any others.
Clapper spews the the nonsense that in spite of how much more massive, comparatively, was the efforts of both U.S. major parties, both of the major presidential campaigns, all the U.S. politicians campaigning on their own and in those efforts commenting as well on the two top presidential candidates, as well as all the in-kind campaign opinion making and shaping by all the formal U.S. media venues, as well as the total “social media” contributions by all those forces, and millions of private U.S. citizens, collectively, that somehow Russian’s small effort by comparison was enough to call the election?
It is no wonder with guys like Clapper in charge the U.S. never knew Putin was set to invade the Crimea; or possibly worse that under Obama they knew and, for Obama, Clapper kept his mouth shut publicly, so as to not screw up the pending deal with the Mullahs of Tehran, for Obama’s legacy, because that was more important?
It is good for the U.S. that people like Clapper no longer have their roles in the U.S. government. It is clear that many, including Clapper, Comey, Brennan, McCabe and Mueller have managed over the years to rise to their level of incompetence (the Peter Principle).
[There’s Clapper and Tapper and Halper and Mueller ...]
What about Donner and Wolf Blitzen! (haha)
And Hillary the red-nosed candidate....
Judy Woodruff just breathlessly said, tune in tomorrow, when we will report on the worlds 1st Smart gun....
Stupid Woman! do you not know guns can not think?
Delusional and/or irresponsible. What an a$$hole.
Let us ask him, “So why did you let that happen?”
The plastic fangs make it hard to speak. But that itself would have been an improvement.
Didn’t they name an STD after him?
LMAO!
CC
Smart gun: lets you know when you're almost out of bullets?
Clapper and Tapper and Halper and Mueller,
Holder and Jarrett and ‘Bama their ruler,
Brennan and Comey and set-ups and stings,
These are a few of my least fav’rite things.
The man is a chicken without a beak.
Hillary’s criminal and likely treasonous activites are what lost the election to her (besides America turning away from leftist democrats).
Obama supporters like this care nothing about that issue and actually prefer that such crimes were covered up.
How? Smartest woman in the world and greatest administration evah was bested by Pooty Poot and the vilest, most repulsive blond mafia boss. Lol
Real Americans won the 2016 election. Communists lost. Bless their hearts and hand them some antidepressants.
It’s all stupid stuff for lazy minds.
Smart fridge reports to Gov health care to deny you diabetic coverage because yer eating 15 pudding cups a day, and a quart of ice cream.
If, If there was any ‘influence’ on the election, it was that though the leaked emails the nation was able to see how deceitful and criminal the Democratic leadership really is. It likely wasn't the Russians who released those emails, but I do believe that those emails did effect the election - and I could not be happier. Finally, the unethical scum that were/are the Clintons and the Obama administration have been exposed - irrefutably. That is justice, not subversion. Clapper should be in leg irons.
Untrue. But if it were true, thank you Russia.
Commie bitches still proclaim that the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were a bunch of empty witch hunts hating on Russia and card carrying Communists who din’ do nuttin’!
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