[finnbow]

Let's review what we know:

- The DNC and Podesta were hacked and the entire intelligence community believes Russia was responsible.

- Trump has expressed admiration for Putin and has considerable business interests in Russia (per Trump's son) as do Michael Flynn, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Rex Tillerson.

- Putin hates Hillary for a variety of positions/actions as Secretary of State.

- Materials universally believed to have been hacked by Russia were released and contained materials damaging only to the Hillary Campaign. No such material was released directed at the Trump campaign.

- The FBI and CIA reportedly disagree as to whether the RNC was hacked.

The NYTimes prints: "American intelligence officials believe that Russia also penetrated databases housing Republican National Committee data, but chose to release documents only on the Democrats. The committee has denied that it was hacked...

And yet, there is skepticism within the American government, particularly at the F.B.I., that this evidence adds up to proof that the Russians had the specific objective of getting Mr. Trump elected.

A senior American law enforcement official said the F.B.I. believed that the Russians probably had a combination of goals, including damaging Mrs. Clinton and undermining American democratic institutions. Whether one of those goals was to install Mr. Trump remains unclear to the F.B.I., he said.

The official played down any disagreement between the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., and suggested that the C.I.A.’s conclusions were probably more nuanced than they were being framed in the news media."

Whell calls the NYTimes piece "fake news" (FWIW, Rush Limbaugh made Whell's argument nearly verbatim about 20 minutes before he posted it (I listened to it on the way home from the gym)) with the apparent intent to quell criticism of Russia's meddling in the election by highlighting disagreement as to whether the RNC was hacked (even though the NYTimes itself reported on the disagreement).

Whether or not the RNC was hacked is immaterial to their hacking of the DNC and Podesta and strategically releasing the materials to harm Hillary and discredit our democracy. Whell/Rush's arguments is a red herring that didn't seem to impress Mitch McConnell who said that that resistance by the GOP to a thorough investigation "defies belief."

Swing and a miss, Whell.