Is it just me or did Fiona Hill before Schiff's committee tell us that the impeachment hearings are essentially amplifying Russia's efforts to discredit our democracy and hamstring whoever won the 2016 election?
“The Russians’ interest is frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency,” noting that her point would likely resonate with Republicans. “The goal of the Russians was really to put whoever became president, by trying to tip their hands on one side of the scale, under a cloud,” she said. “We need to be very careful as we discuss all of these issues not to give them more fodder than they can use in 2020.”
Huh. I knew this before the 2016 election.
I so very much wanted Democrats to get a grip. But no. They amplified Putin's pathetically small election interference effort:
Remember that Russian Facebook ads represented 0.0015% of campaign spending in 2016, 56% of the ads were "shown" after the election, 25% were never even displayed, only 9% of the ads targeted swing states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Hampshire, and "closer analysis of the actual content of the Russian ad buys shows a mix of content, not strongly biased in any particular direction." So influencing the election was a failure--if it was ever an objective, which I doubt (you think Russians couldn't read polls, too?). At best there is no way to prove the Russians had a any effect. But sowing chaos worked wonders as the Resistance sprouted in fertile fields. Yeah, a lot of Russians got bonuses after that operation. Russia remains Russia.
It has been weary listening to idiots who never paid attention to Russian/Soviet actions until 2016.
Welcome to the party, pal.
