Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has claimed that Russian officials privately anticipated a Hillary Clinton victory was “inevitable” in the 2016 US presidential election, based on her assessment of recently released documents by her office.Speaking on Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast, Gabbard has said that Russia had a strategy of undermining public trust in the American political system while preparing for a Clinton-based White House, despite the prevailing narrative that Russia was in support of Donald Trump. “It surprised me that all of these documents still existed, quite frankly,” she said on an episode that is scheduled to release on Wednesday, reports the New York Post. “As we’ve learned in later documents that we’ve reviewed throughout that campaign, Russia believed that Hillary Clinton would win the election.“They felt it was inevitable,” she added. Tulsi Gabbard’s office last month began releasing a series of internal documents detailing how officials navigated the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 elections.Among the disclosures was a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report, which alleged that Russian operatives may have obtained intelligence suggesting Hillary Clinton was “placed on a daily regimen of ‘heavy tranquilizers’” and was “afraid of losing.”“If Russia aspired to help Trump get elected, which is what the manufactured January 2017 intelligence community assessment says with high confidence, according to Brennan and Clapper, then Putin would have released the most damaging information and emails to help President Trump,” she said, questioning why the alleged Russian intelligence was never made public if Moscow truly had a goal to uplift Trump’s campaign.“It was intentionally withheld and not released because they assumed that Hillary Clinton would win that election, and their plan,” Gabbard said, reports the New York Post. Much of the material released by Gabbard focuses on challenging the findings of a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which asserted, among other conclusions, that “the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”Gabbard accused former President Obama of ordering the 2017 ICA of Russian interference in the 2016 election, highlighting the actions of his administration, outlined in the newly released documents.“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” a spokesperson for Obama said, slamming the revelations made by Gabbard. “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” said the Spokesperson.
