U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are probing what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said.... in the context of this New York Times story:
The aim is to understand the scope and intent of the Russian campaign, which incorporates cyber-tools to hack systems used in the political process, enhancing Russia’s ability to spread disinformation.
When a handful of liberal advocacy organizations convened a series of focus groups with young black voters last month, the assessments of Donald J. Trump were predictably unsparing.The Times story links to the focus group's report, from which we learn that a number of black millennials think the electoral system is rigged -- just the way Putin wants them to:
But when the participants were asked about Hillary Clinton, their appraisals were just as blunt and nearly as biting.
“What am I supposed to do if I don’t like him and I don’t trust her?” a millennial black woman in Ohio asked. “Choose between being stabbed and being shot? No way!”
We know that plenty of white Berners feel the same way. Obviously, you can't blame all of this on the Russians -- Democratic documents showing a tilt toward Clinton were there to be leaked, although a party that had genuinely rigged the primaries wouldn't have allowed Sanders to win 23 states.
The Post story suggests that the Russian aim is to sell the world on the notion that American democracy is fraudulent:
The Kremlin’s intent may not be to sway the election in one direction or another, officials said, but to cause chaos and provide propaganda fodder to attack U.S. democracy-building policies around the world, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union.That message may be heard from unexpected places in the U.S. -- now we see that at least some members of the African-American community will think fraud happened if the overt racist in this election loses. Putin must be thrilled.