I've been wondering this about the Russia situation: [View all]

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Last edited Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Was the reason for their interference because they specifically wanted to sabotage Hillary, or because they specifically wanted Trump to be elected? We know Putin hates Hillary because of her work as SoS regarding the sanctions, but what if the GOP had nominated someone other than Trump - Jeb!, for example. Would they still have hacked the DNC? As far as we know Jeb! has never played financial footsy with the Russians, or partaken of other, more personal activities in a Russian hotel, so if the Russians had hacked the DNC anyhow that would mean all they cared about was defeating Hillary.

Or, what if the Dems had nominated Sanders or O'Malley (I'll call that theoretical candidate "Nothillary" so as to forestall any unnecessary dead-horse-beating)? So the Dems nominate Nothillary and the GOP nominates Trump - do the Russians do their dirty deeds to be sure Trump wins, presumably because he'd be more friendly toward them (Nothillary would probably continue the Obama admin's Russia policies), and because of his previous relations with them, whatever those might be?

And what if neither Hillary nor Trump had been the respective parties' candidates? Would Putin have decided not to get involved at all? Even the GOP hasn't been all that friendly toward Russia until Trump came along.

And did the Russians do anything to help Trump win the GOP primary?

I'm guessing that Putin was more interested in getting Trump elected than in sabotaging Hillary, and I hope we find out exactly what the game was. I'm betting kroner to krugerrands that the Trump campaign was in collusion with Russia long before the election.