Hacking Cough

On Thursday, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) was on MSNBC denying that Russia hacked into the government despite insistence by the FBI and CIA that they did, along with pieces of evidence to support this.  (By the way, the next time a Republican tells a reporter that they don't believe that Russia did hack to influence the election, I'd love the journalist just once to ask, "On what do you base that belief?"  It's fine, after all, that we all have the right to believe whateve we want, but merely, "I just don't believe it," isn't a terribly substantive argument -- especially in the face of the FBI and CIA saying they did.)

Worse, though, was when he went on -- “There’s no suggestion that Russia hacked into our voting systems or anything like that.  If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should’ve done.”

Well...

Before we even get into substantive specifics, Mr. Franks makes a bizarre, pointless defense by saying that there as been no suggestion of something being done, while the FBI and CIA have made clear statements of all the very bad acts that were done.  This is like defending a bank robber by claiming there's been no suggestion he stole any children's lunch money.

But as for those specifics --

For starters, there's been evidence that not all the information that got released by Wikileaks was accurate, and some if it was manipulated, which creates a serious problem of knowing what was real and what wasn't.

In addition, Russia's involvement in trying to influence the election involves more than "just" hacking.  There's much documented evidence of a large network of Russian trolls spreading fake news and disinformation, which in its own way is just as problematic.

But far more to the point, one of the many massive problems with the Russian hack and release of information was that it was done to influence the election, which means only stolen material from Hillary Clinton was made public, not anything about the Trump campaign or Republicans.  If Rep. Franks actually, truly wants the media to get involved in the same way, and provide the American people "information that was accurate," then he is ignoring the blatantly obvious realitiy that this means he's calling for them to hack into Republican systems, as well.  Not just those of the Trump campaign, of course, but all Republican officials -- including his own.  For that matter, if the goal is to simply provide accurate information, then he seemingly has no problem with hacking anyone citizen's system.  Unless, of course, he's being totally, pathetically disingenuous and only wants Hillary Clinton and Democrats' privacy hacked.

But mostly, above everything, it's bizarre that it seems necessary to remind Rep. Franks that hacking is actually illegal.  A crime, that sort of thing.  And he's actually calling for the media to do.  But in the end, that's how "Russia succeeded" in getting the private information he seems to so desperately want released.

It's important to note one other major reality about the Russian hacking that gets overlooked by Repubicans so anxious to dismiss the claims of the FBI and CIA in order to defend their party's interests and Donald Trump, at the expense of national security.  And that's the reality that reports have said that Republican servers were hacked.  The fact that the information wasn't released doesn't mean the Russians don't have the information -- they do -- it's only that they didn't release it, which supports the contention that the hack was done to help get Trump election president.  And what's critically overlooked is that, by not releasing it (yet), they hold material that could be used to, in essence, "blackmail" Republican officials or even Trump in pushing polices that Russia wants in exchange for secrecy.  In fact, going even further, if anyone thinks that Russia hasn't been hacking Donald Trump for years -- thanks to his involvement with Russia and his expressed interest in running for president -- then you are acting like a naive, innocent fool.

There are many reasons why it is to everyone's best interest to support an investigation into Russian hacking to influence the U.S. presidential election.  And by "everyone," I mean...everyone.  Including Republicans, including Trump.  If you close your eyes when someone is swinging a baseball bat at your head, that won't stop the bat from continuing towards your skull.