Today in Washington, the Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings about Russia allegedly subverting the presidential election.
Front and center was the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.
JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: "The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections—theirs and other people’s. ((EDIT)) But I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we’ve seen in this case."
Talking Points believes Mr. Clapper. However, there has been no definitive proof put forth that Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin did try to interfere with our vote.
JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: "We have invested billions and we put people’s lives at risk to glean such information. And so if we were to fulsomely expose it in such a way that would be completely persuasive to everyone, then we can just kiss that off. Because we will lose it."
Mr. Clapper saying he cannot expose his sources or explain how the USA got the information about the Russian hacking.
So this becomes a very complicated matter because some Democrats are charging that the hack of Democratic stalwarts like John Podesta influenced votes.
Republicans say nonsense - that the exposed emails simply pointed out political intrigue and press corruption.
It is impossible to say if any votes were influenced by Podesta's rantings but it seems far-fetched to me.
Despite the intel consensus, President-elect Trump is not accepting of the verdict against Putin.
Mr. Trump will be briefed tomorrow by intelligence leaders and maybe that will change.
For you and me, Americans who sincerely want fair elections and justice, the hacking should be a serious matter.
Again Talking Points believes the Russians were involved with the intent to create as much chaos as possible for America.
And nothing happens in Russia at that level unless Putin approves.
But Putin is not holding a smoking gun because US intelligence has to protect its sources of information.
Summing up, the Russians did it. Putin knew about it. And President-elect Trump has to decide if further action against Russia is necessary.
And that's "The Memo".
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