The local Chicago Democrat media mostly ignored the Wikileaks podesta emails. I got all of my information online. The Russia hacked the election stuff was really really pushed after Hillary lost.
Hillary started used the "The Russians hacked me" in response to each release of material from Wikileaks. I guess that's what Podesta told her to say as a way to try and "attack the messenger" to divert attention away from the actual content of what was being leaked.
When she eventually lost the election it was only natural to keep using that excuse, and expand it to include "overt collusion between Trump and Russia". It also offered the perfect reason for Obama to get warrants to snoop on Trump and his peopl.