Not even Hillary Clinton, acclaimed author of What Happened, went this far. On Wednesday’s Hardball, Dem Rep. Jackie Speier called Russian “hacking” of the presidential election an “act of war.” Taking things a significant step further, Speier said:
“I’m not convinced that they didn’t get into the [voting] machines.”
That was too much even for Chris Matthews, who interjected, “we don’t know that yet. We don’t know that.”
JACKIE SPEIER: This has been an act of war by Russia, and it should not be lost on any of us that they have used multiple platforms to undermine this democracy. Whether it was RT, their TV stations, or Facebook, or hacking into our political institutions, the DNC, and the Republican National Committee.Or, furthermore, hacking into the very election system. Both the voting records, and I’m not convinced that they didn’t get into the machines. And that’s what we’ve got to spend a lot of out time on, I believe.CHRIS MATTHEWS: We’ll have to see. We don’t know that yet. We don’t know that.
Speier’s district includes parts of San Francisco, so her evidence-free allegation is likely to go over well at home.
Note: Speier isn’t the first Dem to accuse the Russians of an “act of war.” But it is a dangerous use of language by a Member of Congress. Acts of war can normally be expected to be met with a military response. Is that what Speier was proposing?
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