Of course they hacked stuff to release info but they didn't hack the votes. You can't just release stuff and think "oh because of the stuff that we did the underdog is going to win now with 100% certainty before the results even come out"
That is still almost, if not just as bad if it tilts the election to the other candidate. Everyone here should know that just because leaking certain things
looks bad does not always mean it
is bad, or any sort of true disqualifier. This is particularly true close to an election, where the media obsession with drama and scandal can cause them to zero in on anything that even smells like scandal, even if it's not. That hurts candidates. Republicans of all people should know that - they spend quite a lot of time complaining about unfair media bias hurting their president/party brand.
With that, this is one of the things that concerns me about Trump and Republicans. They all know Russia was looking into how they could more directly manipulate the election via tampering with voter registration lists, so
where is the effort to prevent that in the future? I've heard nothing about federal assistance to replace aging, paperless voting machines. I've seen nothing in regards to the federal govt stepping in and helping states better secure their servers. In fact, not only has there been little action, but iirc, Republicans actually voted to defund the EAC, the only agency concerning these things. What the hell is going on with all of this?
What makes this so much more hypocritical is that the current party in power is supposed to be the people hyper-concerned about
election integrity. They have passed tons of partisan bills at the state level over the past 7 years that have reduced voter turnout
(mainly targeting Democrats) in the name of election integrity and preventing fraud, yet when it comes time to actually do something about the potential for real election tampering
(and not make-believe boogeyman tales), they are nowhere to be found.
It makes me wonder if the GOP is actually ok with foreign powers screwing with our elections, so long as it benefits them. I hope not, because one day, they'll be on the receiving end of it.