I've been listening to the Mueller Report on audible the past few days, it's really wild how sophisticated and intense the Russian interference was, and Trump just shrugging and saying whatever is probably a bigger issue and more suspicious than how he and his team were or weren't involved in the first place. This shit is like...cut off all diplomatic relations type shit. Not repeatedly trash your intelligence agencies while deferring to Putin in person and in public.
My thinking on that though is... yeah it's bad, but how much of it is just "business as usual" espionage and not some bigger thing. And I think that's the problem with this gaining traction in the states, especially if Trump keeps saying nothing happened. That'll end up being the narrative. Or "it was bad, but not that bad."
It was an active campaign targetted at our electoral process, not simply espionage, which is why it is and was not business as usual.
But the more long-term consequence is that Russia was basically the stalking horse for this shit going forward, for the US and a number of western countries. They were bold enough to run the tests, and the results are in. Which show plainly that as long as you don't engage in a textbook legal conspiracy, and you have the tacit endorsement, or indifference, of one political party, there are basically no consequences for engaging in this behavior.
Russia, toward the US in particular, has basically invited a green-light toward foreign election interference and anyone willing to try and coordinate with those campaigns.....Shit sucks
