NBC News reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials say they have reason to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin had a first-hand involvement in efforts to muddle the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
Previous to this NBC story, the Washington Post had reported earlier that the Central Intelligence Agency believes Russia desired to affect the outcome of the election and aid in a Donald Trump win. Those efforts reportedly comprised of hacking the emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the emails of the Democratic National Committee, then providing them to WikiLeaks. The New York Times pitched in with an extensive report on the hacks, showing details on how the attacks were made and, revealed that Democratic House candidates were also targeted.
According to NBC reports, officials have reason to believe the interference went all the way to the very top of Russia's government hierarchy and to Putin himself. Putin has always considered Hillary Clinton an enemy. He claimed the former secretary of state encouraged protests during Russia's 2011 elections. Putin believed she sided with the protesters when Clinton made comments implying that the elections might not be that transparent.
Conversely, Putin has praised Trump as "bright and talented," and the U.S. president-elect likewise praised the Russian president and his leadership. Trump cast aside the earlier report on Russia's alleged involvement in the election, saying on Fox News on Sunday that it's "ridiculous" to believe the Russian government and Putin wanted to grab the election for him.
However, there are Republicans who have taken the report seriously. A group of senators, including Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week called for further investigation into possible election interference and voiced out to fellow senators to not treat it as a partisan issue.
"The stakes are too high for our country. We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyber attacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security," the senators wrote in a statement.
According to a YouGov/Economist poll released, the Russian president Putin has climbed 56 points since July 2014, his popularity having risen among Republicans. See here.
