CMV:If Russia's goal in interfering with the 2016 election was to "undermine public faith in the US democratic process" then they have already succeeded.

The released intelligence report states - "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump."

While the secondary goal may have been a preference for a Trump presidency, it makes one question why this would be the case. Russia is no fool, and I believe that they understood a Trump presidency would garner just the results that we see now...a wildly unpopular president, at least with both the media and congress, and a much more divided nation. I don't think that anyone could disagree that half of the country that actually cares lost their minds when Trump won. We've seen unprecedented levels of vitriolic rhetoric in regards to his presidency, unprecedented levels of negative media coverage, and even an attempt to assassinate republicans

Trumps presidency has been overshadowed by scandalous allegations since he was elected, and six months into his term, articles of impeachment have already been introduced.

Now, much of negative coverage has been of Trump's own doing, but at the same time, I believe that the media focus on scandal is far outweighing and serious reporting on policy, and the Russian's knew that electing a divisive figure like Trump, with no political experience, would lead to exactly what we are seeing play out, a scandal ridden news cycle with nothing but negativity and division.

So long as the media continues to focus on scandals and allegations rather than policy and results, and the congress continues to devote resources to investigations rather than legislation, then Russia has succeeded undermining our electoral processes by disrupting the focus of both the american people and the congress by focusing attention away from policy.

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