Since last summer, we’ve witnessed a firestorm of nonstop media coverage about alleged Russian meddling in our election process. Questions arose regarding targets of Russian hacking and communications. Certain outlets (incorrectly) reported that Russia went so far as to hack voting machines and/or paper ballots in battleground states. A liberal shibboleth no less impressive than Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe has been quoted by the Washington Post as stating Trump’s presidency has been “rendered illegitimate by treasonous or otherwise unlawful manipulation.” While I completely disagree with Prof. Tribe’s assertions on presidential legitimacy, I think his mention of “treasonous or otherwise unlawful manipulation” is well-timed and worth further discussion. Because, frighteningly, the most profound and harmful manipulation of the US electoral process was not perpetrated by Russia at all, but instead appears to have been conducted by our own government.
Much of this story began in the early hours of March 4, when President Trump inartfully “tweeted” an accusation that the Obama Administration illegally “wire tapped” Trump’s campaign offices in Trump Tower prior to the November election. The Left went crazy, arguing that Trump must be delusional in making this “wholly unsubstantiated” claim. While Trump surrogates stood firm, a spokesman for former President Obama hedged his way around the substance of the claim, stating “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.” Over the next two weeks, FBI Director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper similarly danced around the core issue of whether Trump was subject to surveillance, stating that the Obama Administration did not conduct direct surveillance on Trump’s campaign offices. Smelling blood in the water, the media crowed with excitement at seemingly having caught Trump in a preposterous lie.
Then, on March 22, Congressman Devin Nunes, the Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, confirmed that the Obama Administration had “incidentally monitored” communications between the Trump campaign and foreign officials. However, the identity of the US citizens involved had likely been “masked” from disclosure, per standard procedure. This “masking” of Trump administration identities made this “incidental collection” of communications seem a trifle benign at the outset. After all, one should expect that conversations with foreign officials—just like those with customer service—“may be monitored.” Viewed through the lens of anonymity that “masking” was meant to guarantee, the matter seemed relegated to the realm of an unpleasant reality of the information age. The media certainly played it down, instead castigating Congressman Nunes for failing to discuss the matter with leading Democrats on his committee before briefing the President and making his announcement. But, as the story continued to unfold . . .
Read more at:
https://www.cameronkinvig.com/single-post/2017/04/04/When-your-Government-Scares-you-More-than-the-Russians
