Facepalm: Obama Spy Chief Says Russia Decided Outcome of 2016 Election

Obama’s former spy chief, James Clapper, is on a roll as of late. The ex-Director of National Intelligence has come to the defense of the intelligence community. Last week, it was reported that Stefan Halper, a longtime CIA operative and Cambridge University professor, spied on the Trump campaign, trying to make contacts with George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and Sam Clovis. Yet, to Clapper, this isn’t spying. It was just a confidential source trying to glean information under false pretenses to see if there was any Russian collusion—and so far, there hasn’t been any evidence to suggest the Kremlin was tipping the scales. Oh, and it was a good thing that the FBI did this during the election. Well, now he’s taking it a step further. Despite multiple politicians involved in the investigation into Russian collusion on the Hill, Clapper says the Russians “decided” the election. And obviously by extension, he’s referring to President Trump. Also, the Mueller probe has yet to find any evidence of said collusion. Clapper made these remarks on PBS NewsHour Wednesday:

Judy Woodruff [Host]: One of the things you write very — or have spoken about, I should say, in addition to writing about it very candidly is how you have concluded after what happened in 2016 that the Russians not only affected — tried to affect the election, but you said they actually did affect the outcome.
James Clapper: Yes.
Judy Woodruff: What did you mean?
James Clapper: Well, first, I need to make clear that, when we did our formal intelligence community assessment in January of 2017, we didn’t make any call at all about whether the Russians affected the outcome of the election. We didn’t have the authority, charter or capability to do that.
Since I left the government, though, as a private citizen, it’s what I would call my informed opinion that, given the massive effort the Russians made, and the number of citizens that they touched, and the variety and the multidimensional aspects of what they did to influence opinion and affect the election, and given the fact that it turned on less than 80,000 votes in three states, to me, it just exceeds logic and credulity that they didn’t affect the election, and it’s my belief they actually turned it.

former Dir of National Intelligence James Clapper says he's personally concluded Russians not only influenced but DECIDED outcome of 2016 election: "80 thousand votes in 3 states" @NewsHour tonight
— Judy Woodruff (@JudyWoodruff) May 23, 2018

Okay—leaving out the shoddy collusion claims, you have got to be kidding me. We’re now rehashing claims that were negated by Facebook and others. For starters, it’s not like the Russian troll farm operation to influence voters was a massive effort. It was a $100,000 effort, very small in the grand scheme of things, where presidential races are now $1 billion ventures. And did you see some of these ads, like Jesus arm wrestling Satan? It’s a joke. The fact that the institutional integrity of the U.S., and that of our election system, would be upended by a small social media campaign is abjectly ridiculous. Also, throughout most of 2016, everyone had pretty much made up their minds about which candidate they were going to vote for come Election Day. Russia didn’t alter vote tallies; The Washington Post had good pieces about how hard it is to hack/rig an election.

“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections,” said former President Obama in October of 2016.

So, as with most who feed the liberal echo chamber that Russia colluded with the Trump team, or that Russia altered vote tallies, or that Russia’s influence tilted the election, it seems Mr. Clapper is approaching the unserious camp on this issue.

There is no way Trump won Ohio with just GOP votes, the same goes for Michigan and Wisconsin. For months, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) was warning her party that Trump could win her state. He did. He spoke to their issues on jobs, trade, and job protection. He positioned himself as a cheerleader for America; he had an economic agenda. Clinton did not. So, besides going insane on Russia interference, maybe think about the millions of Obama voters who flipped for Trump. The sour grapes over this election are becoming biblical in size from left-wingers concerning their whining. Clinton lost. She’s not coming back. She will never be president. And by the looks of it, most of your 2020 class isn’t much to write home about either.