According to Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s new book, "Facts and Fears", he has "no doubt" the Russian influence campaign swung the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. "Less than eighty thousand votes in three key states swung the election," the excerpt continues.
Trump won the election 304 electoral votes to 227. Clapper is speaking of these three “swing” states:
- PA: electoral votes 20, popular margin 44,292
- MI: electoral votes 16, popular margin 10,704
- WI: electoral votes 10, popular margin 22,748
Notice that Trump would still have won with 384 electoral votes, even if he lost PA. So, the outcome hinged on MI and WI, i.e., 33,452 (10,704+22748) popular votes, which is much less than Clapper’s margin of “eighty thousand votes,” i.e., it’s way more likely that he’s correct about the Russians swinging the election.
Of course the Russians flipped at least that many voters in each of those two states. But, much of the blame has to rest with Democratic leadership and the Clinton Campaign for not giving rust-belt states due attention. See “How the Rustbelt Paved Trump's Road to Victory” by Ronald Brownstein in the Nov 10, 2016 issue of The Atlantic.