Given how perilous the balance of power in the United States is and that the popular vote is not respected it isn't all that strange a thought that someone would do to the United States what the United States has done to untold other countries in the past: attempt to install a friendly regime. Who knows, it may have succeeded. At best, an election was influenced without results. At worst the attempt worked.
I'm not sure if we will ever know what exactly transpired, for me the off-the-books attempt to set up a direct line of communication between Kushner and the Kremlin looked extremely bad and is one of the strongest bits of outward visible proof that there really was something extremely dirty going on. Besides all the circumstantial evidence the direct evidence by itself is telling and I can not imagine any previous - and hopefully future - US administration caught with their pants down to that extent.
I agree with your post and I dont mean to tell you things you may already know but the phrasing of your comment strikes me - "the popular vote is not respected". In an effort to explain rather than talk down, and knowing no more than I do from the comment ...
The popular vote is not a criteria for the winner/loser of an election - never has been here - instead its a component to a larger outcome.
The US has about 327M people and by the nature of our geography they tend to be somewhat more concentrated around coastal areas. Big cities, small farms so to speak.
The reason for the existence of the Electoral College is specifically to prevent any one region/geographic faction of the country from asserting control of the nation via the popular vote.
The lack of respect for the popular vote is no accident. Its a feature, not a bug. "Every vote counts" is absolutely untrue in the US and thats by design.
The evils brought about by counting each vote towards an election are thought to be outweighed by the evils of allowing one regional/socio-economic faction of the population dictate the government for all by virtue of their popular vote capability.
Now lets get real - this is precisely what happens anyhow despite the Electoral College - the battle lines are not regional in nature but economic/religious/cultural. One foreseen evil has been prevented while allowing another situation to thrive. Both sides play this divide and attempt to sway things their own direction.
America has been subdivided into two groups - "Us" and "Them". Things aren't going to get better anytime soon.
I'm not sure if we will ever know what exactly transpired, for me the off-the-books attempt to set up a direct line of communication between Kushner and the Kremlin looked extremely bad and is one of the strongest bits of outward visible proof that there really was something extremely dirty going on. Besides all the circumstantial evidence the direct evidence by itself is telling and I can not imagine any previous - and hopefully future - US administration caught with their pants down to that extent.