Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid floated a conspiracy theory that Russia influenced the vote tally in the 2016 election.
In a forthcoming book reviewed by a reporter with the Washington Post, Reid repeated an unproven claim that Russia influenced the 2016 election by manipulating the vote total in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.
“I think one reason the elections weren’t what they should have been was because the Russians manipulated the votes. It’s that simple,” the Democrat said. “It doesn’t take a math expert to understand that by changing a few votes, the outcome will be different. So, I have no doubt.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed in 2017 with the mandate of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, did not address the question of vote manipulation in his report released in April 2019, but it did say the Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion.” Mueller’s team also “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee determined there was “no evidence of changed votes or manipulated vote tallies” in its assessment of Russia’s interference in the election.
“In its review, the Committee has seen no indications that votes were changed, vote tallying systems were manipulated, or that any voter registration data was altered or deleted, although the Committee and IC’s insight is limited,” the panel wrote in a 67-page, partially redacted report.
A U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment that was released in January 2017 noted, “Russian intelligence obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple US state or local electoral boards. DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.” The assessment did find Russia disseminated propaganda through various social media platforms.
Reid has repeatedly disseminated political misinformation in the past. During the 2012 election, Reid falsely claimed then-Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney did not pay taxes over the last decade. When asked if he regretted the lie, Reid quipped in 2015, “Romney didn’t win, did he?”
