Summary: About 13 Russians have been charged with interfering with the 2016 presidential election, 5 of them have been charged with aggravated identity theft. Most of the charges are led under the fact that they have spent thousands of dollars in political advertisement, hired an actress to pro tray Hillary Clinton in a prison outfit, and many other forms of intervening with the elections. Trump's response to the convictions to the Russians is that he stated that it has already been happening before he started running for president and that "there was no collusion". Russia's response to the charges were that there was no tampering and "Americans are impressionable people they see what they want to see".
Questions:
1. Do you think this charge to the 13 Russians will push the investigation in the white house even farther?
2. What do you think investigators will use when it comes to finding out if the Trump administration had any contact with the Russians?
Link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43092085
7 comments:
I think at this point the 2016 presidential election scandal is long gone, so the potential for this investigation to go further into the white house baffles me. Unless we have concrete evidence that these Russians did all this stuff, we shouldn't look into it that much because as of right now there are numerous issues that need to be addressed to move our country forward. The investigators are probably just going to look at past records to see if the Trump administration had any affiliation with the Russians. There's not much else they can do. Right now we should focus on issues like health care and gun control and other issues that Trump seems to lay off the table.
I disagree with Alex as the fact that a foreign country, much less an adversary such as Russia, has the capability of interfering in the democratic process that our country hold so dear is catastrophic. The ties to Russian collusion in the White House is making more and more substantial progress and solving this problem is of the utmost importance with midterm elections this November. While you may believe that this is deterring from the domestic issues that we currently face this offense if proven to be true seems to only the tip of the iceberg and ignoring this issue would make the US the titanic. Different government agencies are in place to take care of different issues and currently Congress is not involved and would not be distracted from making some much needed gun control reform. If these Russian's end up being tied to the White House this will surpass Watergate as the biggest scandal in US history. Overall, the investigation is as relevant as ever, and while there might be other pressing issues, resolving this problem is of the utmost importance.
I think that these allegations have definitely made citizens even more distrusting of the government. It doesn't exactly bring the White House into the issue, because there is no evidence of these 13 people having colluded with the White House. Contrary to what Alex says, I do believe that the Russia investigation is vital to the wellbeing of the US, because our core values are democracy and freedom, and when another country directly attempts to take this away, I see it as a huge threat. There is concrete evidence that Russians have been involved in our election, which I think is absolutely horrible. However, this new information doesn't really affect the White House's involvement and investigation of Russian collusion. This is still horrible and Russia should be punished, but this doesn't really affect the Russian Collusion investigation unless the FBI can find a solid tie between the two.
I would like to challenge Alex's idea that the election scandal is "gone" and over with. I have recently read an article within the past month or two about the investigation and how it is still going strong because of the vital morals involved such as democracy just as Genevieve said. The scandal definitely feels like it has passed due to the media's absence on the topic and as a result, it has most likely left our minds. However, that does not mean it is gone and I believe that this issue with the 13 Russians has only brought the issue back to us, the people. In addition, the discovering of these individuals is logically because of the investigation meaning it obviously isn't over. To answer Chris' question, yes I believe that this discovery will definitely strengthen the investigation as it is evidence there was a form of tampering to begin with. In reference to your second question, I am not entirely sure what you mean but should the US formally confront Russia on the topic aside from the comments by ambassadors in the article, I believe that this news will be obvious evidence if that is what you mean. Genevieve also mentioned that Russia should be punished however, I disagree at the moment until there is more evidence to back the US. Instead, the government should look more into how much of an effect this tampering had on the election exactly and how much it influenced the results of the election.
I believe that Russian collusion in the election is simply unlikely at this point. I'd like to believe that our nation's security could not be compromised this easily, without discovering concrete evidence against the Russians for over a year now. The current ongoing investigation is still pending even after a year due to a large anti-Trump population. However, as Alex said, I think there are other issues we could focus on. Every President has groups that dislike their stance on issues, but everybody has to work with people they dislike sometimes. If Russia really did evade our nation's security for over a year, it is definitely the most urgent issue for the United States. However, I personally do not believe it is likely.
I agree with Alex in the aspect that the scandal seems dead; the evidence is compelling, but with how it was handled when the first allegations broke out I doubt it will go much farther. It's big enough to grab media attention, but I think that is all there is to it. I'm not stating that it's untrue or even ridiculous, but that it's not going to go anywhere. Futhermore, I agree with Genevieve that this instance has definetly made the people more distrusting of our government and that the scandal is important. I'm not too sure on the punishement part of it, agreeing with Corey that more evidence should be shown first. This is going to get swept under the rug just like all of the other scandals.
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