Fox News contributor John Bolton, also a possible deputy secretary of state in the Trump administration, did his part to delegitimize the CIA’s conclusion that Russia had attempted to interfere in our election in order to help get Trump elected. 

According to the bombshell Washington Post article on Friday, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies were pretty darned certain of the CIA’s finding. Bloomberg national security columnist Eli Lake told Fox News over the weekend that cyber security experts are also so convinced that it “shouldn’t be” a “controversial issue at this point.”

But Trump and his pals at Fox News are doing their best to gaslight the report. In addition to the Trump team’s efforts, Fox News host Chris Wallace did his part in his lengthy interview with Trump yesterday on Fox News Sunday. Friday night, Mike Huckabee suggested the hacking was Obama's fault by blaming our "lack of sophisticated cyber defenses."

Then, on a different show, Fox’s/Trump’s Bolton announced, “It is important to determine the facts first.”

Unlike Trump or Chris Wallace, Bolton at least made a gesture of concern. “Any effort by any foreign government to influence an American election is a direct assault on the Constitution,” he said. “If the facts prove out that Russia did try to influence our election they should face very grave consequences both so they never even think about it again and so that nobody else thinks about it again.”

But when host Eric Shawn asked what kind of consequences Bolton had in mind, especially given that Trump’s likely pick for secretary of state, i.e. Bolton’s likely new boss, has opposed sanctions against Russia in the past.

Bolton deflected, saying we have to know the facts. Then, he threw in the false flag suggestion.

BOLTON: It’s not at all clear to me, just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation.

Bolton’s grounds for such an inflammatory suggestion was not that there was any proof, just his completely uninformed (supposed) suspicion that the Russians would be too sophisticated to leave cyber fingerprints as the hackers did.

Shawn didn’t seem to buy it. “When you say 'false flag,' that is a very serious charge," Shawn said. "I mean, false flag by whom?  … Are you actually accusing someone in this administration, in the intelligence community of trying to throw something?”

No, Bolton was not actually accusing the Obama administration, just suggesting that they might have done it. Again, without any evidence.

BOLTON: We just don’t know. But I believe that intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree.

Shawn did not confront Bolton over his odious tactics. But Shawn did say, “And to those who are very bothered by your claim of a potential false flag? I mean, that’s incredibly serious to say that and very disturbing as an American.”

”Well, we would want to know who else might want to influence the election and why they would leave fingerprints that point to the Russians,” Bolton insisted. Then he repeated his completely baseless, inflammatory false flag smear. “That’s why I say until we know more about how the intelligence community came to this conclusion we don’t whether it is Russian inspired or a false flag.”

Bolton also said he thought it “extremely important” to have “some kind of independent investigation.” But since he’s suggested that the CIA, intelligence agencies and the Obama administration can’t be trusted, you have to wonder who he’d consider “independent.” The Russian State Duma?

Watch the gaslighting below, from the December 11, 2016 America’s News HQ.

(H/T Sopan Deb)