Fmr Clinton Adviser: ‘Hard to Say’ Russia Attacks Didn’t Impact Votes – ‘That Does Call Into Question the Legitimacy of This Election’

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” Center for American Progress President and CEO and former Hillary Clinton adviser Neera Tanden reacted to the indictment of 13 Russians for interference in the election by arguing, “it’s hard to say” that the “campaign the Russians put forward to attack Hillary Clinton” didn’t impact the 70,000 votes that made the difference in the election and this “does call into question the legitimacy of this election.” Tanden did caution that we don’t know that for sure.

Anchor Ari Melber asked, “There is now a position held by the US government, overseen by the Trump administration, through the special counsel, that there was, as you say, criminality behind the election. Does that, in your view, affect the legitimacy of Donald Trump as president?”

Tanden responded, “71,000 votes are — really made the difference in these three states. We have no idea what caused that. If you look at this indictment, though, the social media apparatus actual campaign the Russians put forward to attack Hillary Clinton, it’s hard to say, in my view, that didn’t affect 70,000 votes, we just don’t know. And in my view, that does call into question the legitimacy of this election. Because how can you say the whole Hillary for president, Twitter attacks, Facebook attacks, the entire Russian campaign that spent millions of dollars to take down Hillary Clinton didn’t have an impact in those states? We just don’t know.”

She later added, “Donald Trump…called it a hoax and now we know that’s a lie.”

(h/t Grabien)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett