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US Response 'Hasn't Changed The Calculus' Of Russian Interference, NSA Chief Says (npr.org)
An anonymous reader shares an NPR report: The admiral in charge of both the nation's top electronic spying agency and the Pentagon's cybersecurity operations would seem a logical point man for countering Russia's digital intrusions in U.S. election campaigns. But National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command chief Adm. Michael Rogers told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday there is only so much he can do. That is because, according to Rogers, President Trump has not ordered him to go after the Russian attacks at their origin. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the committee's ranking Democrat, asked Rogers, "Have you been directed to do so, given this strategic threat that faces the United States and the significant consequences you recognize already?" "No, I have not," Rogers replied. But the spy chief pushed back on suggestions that he should seek a presidential signoff. "I am not going to tell the president what he should or should not do," Rogers said when Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal pressed him on whether Trump should approve that authority.
"I'm an operational commander, not a policymaker," he added. "That's the challenge for me as a military commander." Rogers agreed with Blumenthal's estimation that Russian cyber operatives continue to attack the U.S. with impunity and that Washington's response has fallen short. "It hasn't changed the calculus, is my sense," the spy chief told Blumenthal. "It certainly hasn't generated the change in behavior that I think we all know we need."
"I'm an operational commander, not a policymaker," he added. "That's the challenge for me as a military commander." Rogers agreed with Blumenthal's estimation that Russian cyber operatives continue to attack the U.S. with impunity and that Washington's response has fallen short. "It hasn't changed the calculus, is my sense," the spy chief told Blumenthal. "It certainly hasn't generated the change in behavior that I think we all know we need."
There were no scandals but there were plenty of made up scandals to go along with them.
Remember how outlets got two different versions of what happened re: Sanders during the primary? There was a concerted effort to rig the primaries and also the primaries couldn't be rigged since they were all run by individual state parties, and the emails somehow showed both.
Remember the pizza place basement slave dungeon (at the pizza place that didn't even have a basement)? Those were from the emails, even though it was a conspiracy theory. People took it and ran, and it damaged the campaign. But there was less than zero evidence.
So your desire to make everything a straw-man two choice argument is either intentionally misleading, or because of a problem with logical thinking. Pick one.
Or not, because there's probably another 1000 explanations.