Over the years, there have been several instances where people have spoken about Russia’s involvement and impact on the presidential election of 2016. On Wednesday, Vice President Pence finally broke the silence when he told that the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia had no impact or an effect on the outcome of the presidential election. As of yet, there has been no such judgment made by the officials.
In an event that was hosted by Axios, the Vice President Pence said in a statement, “Irrespective of efforts that were made in 2016 by foreign powers, it is the universal conclusion of our intelligence communities that none of those efforts had any impact on the outcome of the 2016 election.”
Pence did mention that there was an attempt made by Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. However, the administration is taking every step it can to counter the threat.
Pence added, “It doesn’t mean there weren’t efforts, and we do know there were. There were efforts by Russia, and likely by other countries, to involve or influence American elections and we take that very seriously.”
So far, the U.S. Intelligence Community has not provided any conclusion about if Russia’s intrusion really impacted the outcome of the election or not.
According to an unclassified assessment released last January states. “We did not make an assessment for the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion.”
Over the past few years, Russia has faced several accusations from the US officials revolving around cyber attacks and disinformation during the 2016 campaign to undermine American democracy. The goal was to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help President Trump win the election.
So far, Pence has not made any comments whether he agreed with the remarks or judgment provided by the U.S. Intelligence Community. In other comments, he insisted that the administration was taking every step to ensure that the US infrastructure and state election systems are secure against future foreign interference efforts.
The Vice President added, “We have discussed plans going forward to ensure meddling in our elections by Russians or other powers around the world will be rebutted and that we’ll continue to develop the kind of technologies that ensure and maintain the integrity of our electoral system.”
In the end, the Vice President recalled that Russia’s intrusion had no effect on the outcome of the election.
“Let me say again, the encouraging word is that it is the universal conclusion of our intelligence community that there was no impact on the outcome of the 2016 election from any foreign meddling in our elections,” Pence continued, “I think that bears repeating.”
