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Calling Russian influence in the 2016 election the “most successful covert influence operation in history,” former CIA and NSA Director retired four-star Gen. Michael Hayden continues to discredit the Trump presidency. Talking about the “most successful covert influence operation in history,” Hayden doesn’t say what the Kremlin accomplished, implying that they got 71-year-old President Donald Trump elected Nov. 8, 2016. Instead of questioning Hayden, a like-minded panel at the Aspen Security Conference, nodded in agreement, without providing proof of exactly how the Russian influence operation impacted the election. If former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton really won 3 million more popular votes than Trump, how could Hayden suggest it was a successful operation? Hayden couldn’t point out, as former CIA and NSA Director, a successful covert influence operation.

Hacking the Democratic National Committee emails and showing that Hillary sabotaged the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with the help of former DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was certainly embarrassing for Hillary, exposing corruption inside the DNC. When the same Russian email hack, disseminated through WikiLeaks, showed that DNC interim chairwoman Donna Brazile gave Hillary questions before the presidential debates, it also embarrassed Hillary’s campaign. Hayden’s argument exposes his partisan zeal, essentially saying without the hacking Hillary would have duped everyone and won the Nov. 8 election. When Hayden refers to covert influence, he’s talking about routine intelligence and counterintelligence operations, practiced by the U.S. and its adversaries. Whether it influences election or anything else, no one really knows what it does.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Conference covered by mainstream journalists, Hayden preached to the choir, all looking to show that Russia helped Trump steal the election. “Frankly, [the Russian meddling] is the most successful covert operations in history,” said Hayden, responding to a question from Yahoo’s chief investigative reporters Michael Isikoff. Isikoff reports on nothing favorable for Trump, looking to validate the Democrat theory that Russia won Trump the election. Isikoff and other left-leaning journalists can’t explain if Russia really helped Trump, why did Hillary win nearly three million more popular votes? Hayden can’t really say how Russia’s influence peddling operation helped Trump, only hinting that if Trump won the election, the Kremlin must have helped him. Hayden doesn’t blame Russia for hacking only for releasing the info to WikiLeaks.

Hayden’s real intent in touting the success of Russia’s influence peddling was discrediting the Trump White House. Whether admitted to or not, Hayden’s been out-of-the loop in intel circles since Feb. 12, 2009 when he left the CIA under the George W. Bush administration. Hayden likes to comment on national security matters but only when it embarrasses the Trump White House. “I just have to admit as a former director of NSA, [Russia’s hack and theft of email] is honorable state espionage,” Hayden told the Aspen Security Conference to laughter. Hayden’s invited to the conference not because he’s up-to-speed on the current hacking scandal but because he reinforces the Democrat media narrative that Trump colluded with the Kremlin. Hayden offers no evidence for his theory only that Russia had its finest moment hacking the DNC and Hillary Campaign Chairman John D. Podesta.

Hayden wholeheartedly agrees with Podesta’s theory that Trump’s in bed with the Kremlin. Whether or not there’s proof means less than beating the message into the public mind. “If we as NSA could have an insight into . . . Russia through the same techniques, game on,” Hayden said, not admitting that the CIA routinely plants fake news where it sees fit, influencing politics in countries around the globe. Broadcast on Voice of America and disseminated by the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs [formerly the U.S. Information Agency], the mission involves “informing and influencing foreign publics . . . “ Hayden wants to pretend the U.S. and its allies don’t do the activities of nefarious actors like Russia, “informing and influencing” foreign governments. Hayden doesn’t fault Russia from hacking only releasing the hacked material over the airwaves.

Pretending the U.S. or its allies don’t engage in deliberate attempts to “inform and and influence” foreign governments, continues to spread the propaganda about the so-called Russian hacking scandal. Democrats and their media counterparts run the Russian hacking scandal 24/7 because they’ve seen the effect on Trump’s approval ratings. Only a year-and-a-quarter out from the 2018 Midterm elections, Democrats think they’ve go a winning strategy to swing Congress back to their side. If former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation comes bad goose eggs, Democrats could watch their fortunes backfire. Asked about confronting the Russians, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hazarded his opinion. “If we confront the Russians, their response is, ‘Well, you don’t have 100% proof, so we reject it,’” said Chertoff, pointing how both sides play the same game.