Bill Maher: Russia Fixing The 2016 Election Is 'The Worst Political Scandal In American History'

There are some things that are admirable about Bill Maher, even though he drives conservatives crazy with his New Rules and special commentaries. He’s pro-free speech; he speaks honestly about the angers of radical Islam, and is not a fan of the politically correct, pro-safe space mindset liberals have adopted towards culture. It’s these reasons why he feels that the American voters view a liberal as an emasculated husband or a whiny schoolgirl. He’s not wrong.

Where he did run aground was when he declared on his show Real Time last Friday night that the alleged Russian collusion to fix an election was “the worst political scandal in American history” (via The Hill) [emphasis mine]:

OK. Let's talk the Russians. I do feel an obligation ... to put the facts ahead of the entertainment. I always try to get both in. But I feel like our country is hanging by a thread right now,” the “Real Time” host said on his show.

"Stop looking at the distractions and the clown show, and look at what matters. Which is, I would say, this is the worst political scandal in American history, and it's not going away.

"The crime is treason. The crime is colluding with Russia to fix an American election!”

Well, that’s quite the allegation. I think Andrew Jackson would disagree after John Quincy Adam and Henry Clay screwed him out of the presidency in 1824. Watergate was worse because it was an actual scandal. The compromise of 1877 (one of three of the corrupt bargains in our history) ushered in Rutherford B. Hayes as president, all but ended Reconstruction, which led to the withdrawal of all federal troops from southern states that formerly made up the confederacy. Republicans and Democrats struck a deal, with the latter provision being part of the compromise that sought Democrats wouldn’t make a mess of things since Hayes won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel Tilden. The result was widespread disenfranchisement of black voters for decades, along with the periods of terror committed against black communities by white supremacist organizations, namely the Ku Klux Klan. And yes, there’s Nixon.

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The point is these things actually happened. We don’t know if Russia colluded with the Trump campaign. We know that the Kremlin had a concerted interference campaign in the form of state-funded media pumping out propaganda nonsense, along with deploying an army of social media trolls. That’s not hacking. Did it play a pivotal role in the election? No. Was it effective? No, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said the fake news stories that were peppered all over the social media platform did not sway the election.

Again, this isn’t a hack. This isn’t messing with vote tallies, which is what a majority of Democrats erroneously believe the Russians did on election night. The Obama White House accepted the results, saying it reflected the will of the people. And the Department of Homeland Security saw no spikes in malicious cyber activity that would suggest the nation was under attack on election night. Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson also mentioned the improbabilities that this election was hacked, namely that it would suggest these phantom hackers knew in advance that tens of thousands of Trump supporters would vote for Hillary Clinton. Moreover, these hypothetical hackers pulled off something that is impossible: they knew that the leaked Wikileaks transcripts would end with a popular vote victory for Clinton, but an Electoral College win for Trump—the latter of which is the only contest that matters. Lastly, Philip Bump and Amber Phillips at The Washington Post also reported that there’s no chance that Russian could hack our election.

But what about the DNC hacks? Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says his source isn’t Russian. He could not vouch for who is giving information to hacker Guccifer 2.0, however. Hacks happen. It’s part of the 21^st century geopolitical world. When news of the DNC hacks broke, even then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reacted with a shoulder shrug. In July of 2016, Clapper said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado "I'm shocked someone did some hacking. That's never happened before." Catching onto the sarcasm there. He also said that Russia hacks us all the time, though because Clinton lost—it’s a big deal. Nevertheless, Clapper did say that the Russia ran an interference campaign prior to leaving his post.

The New York Times recently reported that a year before the election Trump aides had contact with the Russian intelligence, but no evidence of collusion were found. Moreover, the Times admitted that these associates have done business in Russia, in which you most certainly go through the FSB. It’s not unusual:

Several of Mr. Trump’s associates, like Mr. Manafort, have done business in Russia. And it is not unusual for American businessmen to come in contact with foreign intelligence officials, sometimes unwittingly, in countries like Russia and Ukraine, where the spy services are deeply embedded in society.

So, where’s the hard evidence of treason? Where’s the collusion? Where’s the proof that shows the Trump campaign ordered the hacks? There’s none. All we know is that the Left is giving RT way too many influence points, and that they’re sour that Twitter trolls ruined Clinton’s presidential chances. Actually, Clinton ruined her own chances to be president by thinking that her emails were not a big deal. Voters felt she was inauthentic, dishonest, and untrustworthy. Hey, when you have an unsecure and unauthorized email server that you used to conduct official business as secretary of state and then lie repeatedly about the circumstances concerning the establishment of that server—you might kill you own numbers on character. Also, calling tens of millions of Trump supporters deplorable—that was another colossal error. She also ignored tens of millions of white working class voters, instead trying to carry a win solely off the backs of overly indoctrinated post-graduate students and urban-based elites. And even with young voters, she wasn’t as strong as Obama. Clinton was a terrible candidate and the Obama coalition simply didn’t buy into her candidacy. It’s time liberals accept defeat, admit she was awful, and stop this ‘Russia hacked the election’ nonsense to justify not acting like an adult in the Trump era.

This is a scandal, Mr. Maher? I admit that it’s disconcerting. Congress’ respective intelligence committees should look into it. But I see how this could be the worst political scandal in our history, where there’s no evidence that our election was hacked or that there was collusion between the president’s campaign and Russian intelligence. There’s a lot of allegations and innuendo. That’s not evidence.

Also, RT helped swing this election towards Trump? C’mon, guys.

Last Note: Also, where was the freakout when China hacked the OPM and stole the sensitive personal information of over 21 million former and current government employees in 2015? Oh, right--Obama was president. And that was an actual hack that led to U.S. spies being pulled out of China over the breach.