#Trumpdate: The Donald Takes On The CIA

In an ironic announcement of historical proportions, the CIA announced that it was pretty certain that Russia intervened in America’s elections last month by hacking DNC emails in order to ensure a Clinton loss/Trump victory. The announcement was greeted with some bemusement around the world when they remembered that one of the CIA’s first major projects was to intervene in Italy’s post-war elections in 1948, but it has intervened in a lot more elections since then. Many Senators were much less bemused by the announcement. Four senior US Senators, including Republicans John McCain and Lindsay Graham, said the revelations should “alarm every American” and asked Congress to investigate what happened. The revelation is alarming because of the obvious reason that it might have tipped the election and because of the fact that the Obama Administration and the US government in general has no plan for how to respond to such attacks.

Trump was having none of it. In an interview with Fox, he said the claims were “ridiculous” and that it was just the Democrats making excuses for a landslide loss. (Trump lost the popular vote and his margin of victory in the electoral college ranks 46 out of 58.) The renewed focus on Russia’s role is bound to put Trump’s latest frontrunner for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, under heavy scrutiny. Rex is the current CEO of Exxon Mobil and has cultivated a long-standing and warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His coziness with Putin will make some Republican Senators (like Graham and McCain) uncomfortable.