‘Unprecedented White House attempt to smear incoming president’
It is unprecedented for American democracy to blame a foreign power for influencing an election and use that as a tool to overturn the democratic process, experts told RT.
The White House has made some new allegations against President-elect Donald Trump over his supposed ties with Russia.
“It was the president-elect who refused to disclose his financial connections to Russia. It was the president-elect who hired a campaign chairman with extensive, lucrative, personal financial ties to Russia. It was the president-elect who had national security adviser on the campaign that had been a paid contributor to RT, the Russian propaganda outlet,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told the daily briefing on Monday.
These claims come after the CIA accused Moscow of hacking the Democratic party in an attempt to influence the US presidential election.
American President-elect Donald Trump has again slammed the CIA's claims that Russia meddled in the US election to help him take office. He said the accusations are politically-driven and created by his opponents to explain Hillary Clinton's defeat in November.
Trump's statement refers to a confidential CIA report on Russia's alleged role in the election on which the Washington Post reported.
According to the editor of Defense & Foreign Affairs publications Gregory R Copley, “the White House is doing something almost unprecedented in US presidential history and the history of transitions. It is trying to go to great length to discredit an incoming administration. What is remarkable is how softly President-elect Trump is responding to this – not reacting to the incredible and vituperative nature of the attacks on him and on the attempts to smear him with the allegations of foreign aid for his election victory.”
“The other thing is that President Obama is determined to achieve a number of things before he leaves office. One is to absolutely punish Russia, which he sees as the chief obstacle to his success particularly in the Middle East and Europe and elsewhere. And also the outgoing Obama administration, the Democratic party supporting Hillary Clinton campaign are going to great length to blame the loss of the Clinton campaign on someone other than themselves – Russia and Trump’s alleged unholy alliance with Russia," Copley added.
‘This is personality-bashing to discredit the results of US election’
RT America host Ed Schultz shared his opinion: “What we are seeing the White House do right now, because there is no hard solid evidence of any Russian hacking here, there is a bunch of generic fluffy statements that are coming from just some intelligence agencies. What we are seeing is personality-bashing. They are going after Paul Manafort; they are going after anybody who has been associated with Donald Trump on an international level in an effort to discredit the results of this election and take it to the Electoral College to possibly have thrown a rope or some kind of savior to Hillary Clinton that she might be president. I am disappointed that the White House is going down such a flimsy road.”
‘No proof because these are not hacks but leaks’
“It’s quite a trick, isn’t it, to make such allegations without providing any evidence whatsoever. The reason they don’t provide the evidence is because there is none,” former CIA officer Ray McGovern told RT.
He said, “If I were President-elect Trump, I would get NSA – which is responsible for all this kind of electronic surveillance, I would convene an NSA meeting and have some CIA people there” and ask them where the proof is to the allegations that Russians hacked into the DNC and Clinton’s emails. “The problem is, there is no proof because these are not hacks, these are leaks,” McGovern added.
‘Blaming Russia for influencing US election is a tool to overturn the democratic process’
Peter Van Buren, a former State Department Foreign Service Officer, said he is “deeply frightened.”
“We are looking at serious mainstream people in the US who are seeking to overturn an election. People voted, 62 million people voted for Donald Trump, the majority of electoral votes went to Donald Trump under the system that the US has had for more than 200 years. People are unsatisfied with that result. And they are now seeking to overturn it. There were efforts for a recount; those didn’t succeed. There are political scientists claiming that we should postpone the Electoral College vote or tempt to manipulate it so that electors do something they’ve never done in the history of the US. And failing all that, we are going to blame a foreign power for influencing our election and use that as a tool to overturn the democratic process and change an election in a democratic nation. That leaves me frightened”, Van Buren told RT.
Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
‘Russia seems to be the go-to state’
Matteo Bergamini, founder and director of Shout Out UK, told RT: “It is important to mention that Trump was an anti-establishment candidate. He came into power with an anti-establishment agenda and the idea of making America great again. This anti-establishment idea has shocked a lot of people in America, especially in the American political hierarchy and obviously the Democrats. A lot of people believed that it would be an easy win for Hillary. Clearly, it wasn’t. She lost and a lot of people have to blame someone for that…Russia seems to be the go-to state. The one they’ve always blamed, ever since the Cold War it’s always been Russia against the West - the one country that if you blame its people would not ask too many questions, they wouldn’t be angry about it.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
