66 million dig
When presented with the hair-raising evidence that Russian intelligence carried out a successful plan to pick the government of the United States, a principled president-elect would respond with horror and a determination to expose the attack and prevent any recurrence. An unprincipled president-elect would try to make the story disappear by picking away at the evidence around the margins: Russian involvement may be a fact, but while it’s probable that the hacks swung enough votes to decide a very tight race, and it’s extremely likely that Russia specifically hoped to help Trump win, neither of these conclusions can be proven. But the incoming Trump administration is instead going for option No. 3: flat-out lies.
In fact, it did say something before the election. Here is the first sentence of Ellen Nakashima’s October 7 Washington Post report: “The Obama administration on Friday officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.” Trump was even presented with this information onstage at a presidential debate, where he dismissed it. What’s astonishing is that Trump is not only denying the substance of the accusation, he’s denying that the accusation was even made. Let this sink in: The president-elect of the United States is insisting that something that was witnessed on national television by more than 66 million people never happened.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/12/trump-denies-thing-that-66-million-people-saw-happen.html