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WaPo: Bernie Sanders briefed by U.S. officials that Russia is trying to help his presidential campaign
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
Interesting, all according to plan, yet attack failed. Wonder if The View will correct themselves, today they went in on Russia helping*, not trying to help, Sanders. Like how weak are our defenses if we know Russia wants to interfere yet are powerless to stop them?
That article says that a source from intelligence department (of which there has recently been some restructuring to be more pro Trump) is walking back their stance that they know Russia is interfering in 2020 elections to help Trump. The part about Bernie is from Sunday morning talk shows where the trump admin was pushing the Bernie narrative to shift more focus on Democrats than Trump.
It doesn't refute the reporting that they're interfering to help his campaign.
"Mischaracterized the reports to suggest Russia wants Sanders to be President." means that when the Trump administration went onto Sunday talk shows, they suggested that Russia wanted Bernie to win the presidency, not any other reason such as thinking Bernie would be a weaker candidate for Trump, or to sow distrust with the media, or to depress the vote with Bernie or busters in the case Bernie loses the primary.
Russia targeted Bernie voters in 2016 as well, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
It doesn't refute the reporting that they're interfering to help his campaign.
"Mischaracterized the reports to suggest Russia wants Sanders to be President." means that when the Trump administration went onto Sunday talk shows, they suggested that Russia wanted Bernie to win the presidency, not any other reason such as thinking Bernie would be a weaker candidate for Trump, or to sow distrust with the media, or to depress the vote with Bernie or busters in the case Bernie loses the primary.
Russia targeted Bernie voters in 2016 as well, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Just in case anyone had any questions about the timing of the article. Jfc.
I don't think that this explanation is right at least for the Magnitsky Act, which Sanders was one of 4 senators to vote against in 2012 (Others: Sheldon Whitehouse of RI, Jack Reed of RI, Carl Levin of Michigan). The Magnitsky Act does not contain any stated sanctions against Iran or Iranians, it was specifically targeting Russian oligarchs and their over-seas holdings. There were 18 primary targets of the Magnitsky Act, all of whom were Russian or Eastern European. There have been sanctions applied on other individuals with the Act since it was passed, notably on Saudi's responsible for Jamal Khashoghi's murder. The 2017 Russian sanctions bill passed the senate 98-2, and Sanders' justification for joining Rand Paul in opposing it was that he argued that it threatened the Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal. No other Democrats agreed with Sanders on that, neither the senate nor the house (the House passed the bill 419-3, with the 3 nays being Republicans -- Justin Amash, Duncan (TN), and Massie), but those were his motives, personally I don't think he's right there, at least every Democrat in government in the House and Senate voted Yes on the bill.
Sanders never revealed at the time why he voted against the Magnitsky Act because he was a relatively unknown Independent. It's also worth recalling that in Obama's first term, the Administration was trying to soften the relationship with Russia. Diplomatically Democrats were interested in pursuing a "Reset" with Russia, and Republicans were generally skeptical of the Clinton-led "Russian Reset." The more progressive left generally viewed sanctions against Russia and other countries as punitive, and tools for American imperialism or interventionism abroad. Jill Stein was notably against sanctions as well, though this was prior to her really being known as a "useful idiot" of Russian foreign diplomacy ... She was most known as a recurring candidate for Governor in Massachusetts under the Green-Rainbow Party. Likewise with Progressive 2008 candidate Mike Gravel, who widely opposed international sanctions.
The Obama Administration originally opposed the Magnitsky Act (or the sanctions it recommended) as well, but eventually got carried into it by public support in light of Russia's continued crack down on human rights, and military aggression towards the West. Mitt Romney used Obama's opposition to Russian sanction bills against him in the 2012 election, when Obama finally defended his actions by, now somewhat infamously, chiding Romney that he was stuck in the past with his perception of Russia and that "The Cold War called and it wants its foreign policy back." The line was considered a zinger for Obama in 2012 and helped him get back on track after a poor first debate performance, but 4 - 8 years later it's not really the zinger we thought it was then.
We don't actually know why Sanders voted against the Magnitsky Act, he wasn't asked because he was a junior senator, but it wasn't because of Iranian sanctions. If we had to guess it was likely because the progressive foreign policy du jour was against international sanctions at the time. Sanders prides himself on his ideological consistency, and in 2012 it would be consistent that a progressive independent might oppose sanctions to Russia, even as Russian clearly acts antagonistically and would heighten that antagonism since.
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These tweets, at least the second one from Lumumba is mischaracterizing what's in that article. This latest article from CNN is about Shelby Pierson telling lawmakers that Russia has a preference for Trump and is aiding his re-election. The walkback from other anonymous intelligence officials mentioned in this CNN article is not in regard to Sanders, but Trump, saying that Shelby was wrong to assert to lawmakers that Russians have a preference for Trump, only that Russians have been aiding the Trump campaign.
There shouldn't be a follow-up thread based on this CNN article because it's about the Trump campaign and Russia, not the Sanders campaign and Russia. Sanders only comes up in the article, in the last sentence, because it describes how Trump surrogates made media statements on Sunday alleging that the Russians want to help Sanders in a response to Democratic lawmakers asserting that Russians are trying to aid in Trump's re-election.
Here is the article, it's about the Trump campaign:
US intelligence briefer appears to have overstated assessment of 2020 Russian interference
The US intelligence community's top election security official appears to have overstated the intelligence community's formal assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 election, omitting important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers earlier this month, three national security officials...
I asked if there was a follow-up thread because this wasn't updated for a while and I didn't know if the conversation moved onto another thread and I was posting info that was already shared.
Your link goes to the same article in the first tweet, btw. The first tweet quotes the relevant parts about Pierson. The second still gets me on the timing of it and the lack of specifics about why they're interfering, but I admit that's more speculation on my part and the tweeter's part.
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Yeah my article goes to the article in the tweet which was mischaractarizing the article as being about the Sanders campaign, when it was actually about the Trump campaign.
I believe that tweet was trying to draw a narrative that isn't supported by the article, namely that intelligence officials walked back to support of the Sanders campaign from Russia, and that this was part of some sort of coordinated effort around the Nevada caucus.
Sanders has done everything right here. There isn't much of a narrative. That Russia might support his campaign is the same reason that Trump has supported his campaign. There isn't much Sanders can do about that other than disavow the support
Better this sort of nonsense than "socialism for whites only." Trump would win on that, but I doubt too many people care about this.