Gotcha – or so what?

Three days ago, no-drama Obama said this about the alleged Russian hack of Democratic National Committee chairman John Podesta’s emails which were published during the US election by WikiLeaks:

“None of this should be a big surprise. Russia trying to influence our elections dates back to the Soviet Union.” Obama dismissed the hack and the leaked emails as “not very interesting” and lacking “explosive” revelations. He puzzled as to why it was an “obsession” by the news media despite the knowledge that the Russians were responsible.

“What’s happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story, and the constant source of coverage – breathless coverage – that was depicted as somehow damning in all sorts of ways when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff?” he asked.

Yesterday, however, this was reported:

President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed retaliatory action against Russia for its meddling in the US presidential election. “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing,” Obama told NPR.

So is this a “gotcha!” or “so what?” moment?

Indeed, is it a moment at all? The claim that Russia was behind the Podesta email hack, which is fuelling yet more anti-Trump hysteria about a “stolen” election, has come from anonymous sources within the CIA.

But the rest of America’s intelligence establishment is not falling into line. Three days ago, Reuters reported that the Office of the Director of National intelligence, which oversees the 17 agency-strong U.S. intelligence community, said there while there was evidence of Russian hacking there was no conclusive evidence that Moscow had intended to boost Trump at Clinton’s expense.

Others, including Julian Assange, have suggested that the Wikileaks cache was in fact leaked by a DNC staffer. Who knows?

None of this, of course, has stopped the progressivistas claiming that the Kremlin got Donald Trump elected and that democracy in America is now at an end.