In 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a red button that was meant to read, in Russian, “Reset.” Secretary Clinton stated that it was President Obama’s desire to “reset” the U. S. relationship with Russia. Mrs. Clinton said that they had worked very hard to use the correct Russian word on this button. “We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Of course, we all know now that they got it wrong. Instead of “Reset” the red button read, “Overcharged!”
Overcharged! Considering today’s political climate, “overcharged” was perhaps the correct word after all. Overcharged with personal accusations, political allegations and people with overcharged emotions and hysteria.
Overcharged accusations of Russia hacking the presidential election. Overcharged allegations of a Trump Administration’s relationship with Russia. Overcharged so that Michael Flynn was forced resign for having phone conversations with the Russian Ambassador. So overcharged, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, felt it necessary to recuse himself from any investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The reason for his self-imposed recusal—meeting with the Russian ambassador while a U. S. Senator. “Overcharged” seems the right word to cover it all.
Now, a Putin spokesman has stated publicly, that people associated with Hillary Clinton met with the Russian Ambassador. Dmitry Peskov told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with, “people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.” Peskov also stated, “Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that he [Kislyak] had lots of meetings of that kind.”
A former Clinton campaign spokesman denied that any such meeting took place.
Peskov went on to say it was simply part of Ambassador Kislyak’s job to meet with both sides of the campaign in order increase Moscow’s understanding of things going on in America. He denied that Russia was in anyway trying to interfere with the 2016 election. “There were no meetings about elections” Peskov said. He went on to say that these meetings should not be seen as interfering with the electoral process.
Many would agree with Peskov. Russian interference played no role in the last presidential election. They are more inclined to think that the charges of interference are made to delegitimize the Trump presidency. Others are convinced that Russian involvement made all the difference.
Did the Russians, in some way or the other hack or influence the last presidential election? Or like the button Secretary of State Clinton presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is it all “OVERCHARGED?”
