Trump thought he'd lose but come out with a whole new TV network to replace Fox.
The Russians offered 'dirt' on Clinton, apparently people in Trump's organization and the Republican party said, "yes."
Russia wanted to disrupt our election without necessarily caring about the outcome - and you must remember that the Russian efforts took place in swing districts on social media. They also hacked voter rolls in at least 37 states, so that some eligible voters weren't allowed to vote. In the meantime, you had systematic GOP efforts to suppress voters, particularly minority voters through voter ID laws (a classic example is demanding a birth certificate to register when in some cases, birth certificates were NOT ISSUED to black babies before a certain year, so basically all the older black people now cannot vote), and gerrymandering.
The field was just disrupted enough for Clinton to lose the electoral college, though she won the popular vote.
But be mindful that many people were running for office, not just Trump, and the GOP artificially swept the elections, garnering the WH, and majorities in both houses of Congress. This in spite of the fact that Democratic candidates actually had more votes...but again the gerrymandering.
My own belief is that many in the GOP are guilty of treason, because they dealt with the Russians to get 'dirt.' I also believe the GOP is systematically trying to stall, if not derail, the investigation because they like being in power so much they have forgotten they are Americans. Trump is going to go down, probably on obstruction of justice, but many, many in the GOP will be tainted with the scandal and their shameful and un-American lock-step coverup.
In the meantime, we have an increasing number of so-called 'establishment' Republicans - people who are actually willing to work across the aisle and compromise, because they want to govern. What is left are pond scum such as Louis Gohmert, who is so stupid I cannot understand how he is able to dress each morning, let alone function as a legislator. These are right-wing crazies, destroyers who want to pull the government apart on the strength of almost four decades of 'government is your enemy.' Problem is if you accept the Norquist 'drown it in the bathtub' formula, you necessarily are going to be without services that make our lives better - like Social Security, Medicare and so on.
Putin's deal is he wants to disrupt us. He would have hacked the elections without Trump's people just to do it. The issue is some Republicans and members of Trump's staff WORKED WITH THEM. That is treason.
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