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(Re-)launching Russiagate 2020

On the heels of their impeachment debacle, somehow it seemed a propitious time for the Left to launch its sequel—Russiagate 2020: This Time We Get HimNo, Really!

The “intelligence community” (i.e., one person in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence) leapt to a conclusion; and, through the magic of leaks, the collusion media, anonymous former Obama officials and their ilk, and Russiagate carnival barkers such as Senator Chris Murphy (D-Iran . . . sorry, Connecticut) leapt into the fray and shilled for their spot in the slimelight:

[Trump] has been a gift to Russia . . . He has essentially ceded the Middle East to Russian interests. He has accomplished more in the undermining of NATO than Russia has in the last 20 years, and he continues to effectively deny that they have an ongoing political operation here in the United States that, by and large, is intended to support Donald Trump and his allies.

That Murphy and his neo-McCarthyite cohorts are partisan poltroons is settled political science; nevertheless, let us quickly dispense with his mendacious talking points.

Demanding NATO members pay their fair share for the alliance’s common defense against Russia hurts . . . Russian interests. Defending oneself against the Left’s Russiagate lie is not proof of the lie. Rather, it is proof that people such as Chris Murphy are lying with impunity, thanks to the complicit collusion media.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, as the Left did when it jumped the gun on releasing its deceitful sequel to their 2016 Russiagate lie.

As sullenly reported by one of the ringmasters of the disgraceful Russian collusion circus, CNN:

The U.S. intelligence community’s top election security official . . . Shelby Pierson, told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping President Donald Trump get reelected . . . The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election and has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with.

Then, the spoiler alert: “But the U.S. does not have evidence that Russia’s interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, the officials said.”

With the network’s customary lack of self-awareness or accountability, CNN absolved the official by theorizing, “Those facts, the U.S. assessment that Russia views Trump as someone they can work with and the separate assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 elections, may have led Pierson to connect the dots.”

Further, with a complete lack of irony, CNN also reported that it was political interference by Congress—not Trump—that helped spawn the confusion. “Pierson’s characterization of Russian interference led to pointed questions from lawmakers, which officials said caused Pierson to overstep and assert that Russia has a preference for Trump to be reelected.” (Since no party was designated for these “lawmakers,” who wants to bet they were Democrats?)

Almost as if to redeem itself for dashing the hopes of the regressive Left that Trump’s goose is finally cooked this time, CNN first guards against the Bernie Bros inciting a cybermob against them. “While intelligence agencies warned Sanders that Russia is interfering to boost him in the Democratic primaries, they have not assessed that Russia wants Sanders to win the general election.” (This “warning” is what is known as a defensive briefing—you know, like the one Trump’s campaign didn’t get in 2016.)

That socialist base covered, CNN made sure to incorporate the old Russiagate standards so dear to the ears of their scores of regressive viewers:

Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the aim of helping Trump get elected and damaging then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the intelligence community concluded, writing in its post-election assessment that “Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.

Of course, this was not an intelligence community-wide “assessment.” It came from agencies and departments constituting just a part of the intelligence community—specifically, those run by John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey who, post-election, were laying the groundwork for the perpetuation of the Russia-gate collusion lie; and the appointment of a special counsel to hamstring the incoming administration, especially in their efforts of trying to get to the bottom of spygate.

The reality was that Putin sought to “sow discord” among the American electorate and delegitimize our elections. And he will again.

In 2016, any “boost” Putin gave Trump was to diminish the mandate of the presumptive winner, Hillary Clinton—who, along with her husband, had been very friendly toward Russian interests. But weakening an incoming U.S. president is good for Putin (as it was for Brennan, Comey, and Clapper). Neither Putin, Clinton, nor the vast majority of political observers thought Trump had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.

Oops.

Then, echoing the mendacious talking points of Chris Murphy and other neo-McCarthyites, CNN recited a risible litany of how Trump’s “foreign policies have benefited Russia, from his abrupt pullout of U.S. troops from northern Syria to the discord he has sown with America’s closest European allies. And he has previously expressed a reluctance to impose severe sanctions on Russia.”

Sigh, again: the Middle East is bigger than northern Syria; and allowing Russian troops—not U.S. troops—to die in that horrific civil war is no boon to Putin. And, in an abjectly tendentious passage, CNN focuses on the reluctance to impose sanctions while omitting the fact sanctions were imposed.

As such sleight of hand portends, when the time is ripe CNN and the rest of their collusion cohorts will be launching Russiagate 2020.

Hence, CNN stresses that a “senior national security advisor”—anonymously, of course—leaked that, “a more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the president is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker.”

“Dealmaker.” Like those involved in Uranium One? The “Russia reset”? Reneging on missile defense in Eastern Europe? Refusing to send lethal aid to Ukraine? Asking Medvedev and Putin to lay off so someone can get reelected president?

Not quite.

Yes, this “assessment” comes in spite of the fact that the Trump Administration has been anathema to Russian interests. Yet, importantly, this assessment is accurate, though not for the reason some believe.

Nonetheless, soon the architects of the 2016 Russiagate lie will again “connect the dots,” take a “short step,” and relaunch their deceitful sequel, Russiagate 2020: “Traitor Trump’s Perp Walk!” 

CNN gives the game away: “And while it is not inconceivable that Russia is once again looking to boost Trump’s candidacy, three national security officials said the U.S. intelligence community does not yet have the evidence to make that assessment.”

“Yet” being the operative word.

So keep an eye out this summer as you stroll past an airport TV near your gate for the relaunch of Russiagate 2020, new and disproved, for public consumption by gullible Lefties. And, amidst this regressive operatic farce of delusional, dissembling, pearl-clutching, fact resistant leftists, take care to ponder who is this sequel’s actual author and why.

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About Thaddeus G. McCotter

An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) represented Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003 to 2012 and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars, and a Monday co-host of the "John Batchelor Show" among sundry media appearances.

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