Here Are Dozens Of Times Democrats And Their Corporate Media Sycophants Pushed The B.S. ‘Russian Bounty’ Story (VIDEO)
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The “Russians paying bounties” for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan was given wall-to-wall media coverage before the election and even made an appearance in the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates.
In a stunning reversal of a major story pushed by the corporate media and Democrats before the election, Adam Rawnsley, Spencer Ackerman, Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast have revealed that it was all bunk.
The subheading is quite telling, “It was a huge election-time story that prompted cries of treason. But according to a newly disclosed assessment, Donald Trump might have been right to call it a ‘hoax.’”
It was a blockbuster story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great Game” in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.
But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had “low to moderate” confidence in the story after all. Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the story is, at best, unproven—and possibly untrue.
“The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate confidence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019 and perhaps earlier,” a senior administration official said.
“This information puts a burden on the Russian government to explain its actions and take steps to address this disturbing pattern of behavior,” the official said, indicating that Biden is unprepared to walk the story back fully.
Source: Daily Beast(Emphasis Added)
It was first published by the New York Times (of course) then it was “verified” by the Washington “Democracy Dies In Darkness” Post, the Wall Street Times, and the Associated Press. This is how it became The Gospel Truth™.
Joe Biden pushed this on several occasions as he (sort-of) campaigned.
While hiding in his basement…
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says he is furious over allegations that President Donald Trump knew about Russian “bounties” on US troops.
To read more, click here: https://t.co/FSABBe9Oaq pic.twitter.com/fw8oA3NMkW
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 28, 2020
He called it a “dereliction of duty” on Trump’s part for not acting on it during a campaign event.
Joe Biden says it’s a “dereliction of duty” if Trump did not act on Russian bounty intelligence: “The idea that somehow he didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty … and if he was briefed and nothing was done about this that’s a dereliction of duty” pic.twitter.com/Z3tIwmSqj5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 30, 2020
Again from his basement…
Joe Biden says Pres. Trump is “not doing a damn thing” about reported Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and invokes service members and their parents: “If my son were still alive after having spent a year in Iraq, I don’t know what the hell I would do.” pic.twitter.com/hyXlgQUa2S
— ABC News (@ABC) July 8, 2020
At the Democratic Convention…
Joe Biden: “Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise — voting.” https://t.co/6DLWHOY082 #DemConvention pic.twitter.com/950WKLiwdh
— ABC News (@ABC) August 21, 2020
During a townhall event in October…
Joe Biden is attempting to spread the Russian bounties conspiracy theory in his town hall. He was of course not corrected. #BidenTownHall pic.twitter.com/EW4jVQKH4a
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) October 16, 2020
During the Presidential debate…
A real Commander in Chief would stand up to Putin over Russian bounties on American troops. That’s what @JoeBiden showed us in this clip: #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/oRjqDxFN2e
— VoteVets (@votevets) October 23, 2020
In one of the few one-on-ones with a reporter…
Joe Biden is lying to voters about the bogus Russia bounty story.
Here’s the truth via NBC: “a review of the intelligence around each attack against Americans going back several years, none have been tied to any Russian incentive payments.” pic.twitter.com/NrvIbgTdvu
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 1, 2020
This particular clip doesn’t age well since a very weak Biden threatened to put two Navy Destroyers into the Black Sea after Russia has continued to increase its military presence near the border of Ukraine, but pulled back after Russia warned the U.S. to stay away “for their own good.” When Biden blinked, Putin cut off access to the Kerch Strait for foreign warships until the fall.
So much for “confronting” Putin and telling him to “knock it off.”
It was also used in the Vice Presidential Debate by Kamala Harris to bash the Trump Administration.
SUPERCUT:
A look back on how cable news went all in on the discredited Russian bounties story. pic.twitter.com/QaG9xAqiuR
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 15, 2021
NowThis, a leftwing “media” outlet that creates viral videos also pushed this story.
‘Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin’ — @JoeBiden on Trump allegedly ignoring intel on Russian bounties against U.S. soldiers pic.twitter.com/0kHTxb9OLE
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 1, 2020
You could say that left-wing advocacy groups “pounced” on the story…
It’s been two weeks and Trump has done NOTHING about Russia’s bounties on our troops.
He’s a coward who cares more about pleasing his Russian master than keeping our troops alive.What are you going to do about him this November?? #TraitorTrump#TwoWeeksOfSilence pic.twitter.com/ttS33l5AX5
— VoteVets (@votevets) July 10, 2020
Drew Holden, preeminent maker of Twitter threads had a real doozy on the media’s push to smear Trump. The Washington Post even gave him 4 Pinocchios for disputing the story. It’s so shameful when you can’t even trust the overtly partisan fact-checkers.
The worst offender was @nytimes, who broke the original story and went on to convince the families of soldiers who had been KIA that perhaps the Russians were to blame and President Trump didn’t care.
Will we get a follow up? Will the families? pic.twitter.com/FTEkqRaPTn
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@CNN also made a habit of having elected Dems on to suggest a path forward on these unverified allegations, glossing over the fact that they may or may not even be true. Here’s @SenGillibrand and @SenDuckworth. (More on electeds later) pic.twitter.com/CG2ffknKKf
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@washingtonpost gave Trump Four Pinocchios on a fact check when he said that the intel – which, again, was unverified and has since evaporated – was even disputed.
I mean, cmon! pic.twitter.com/jb7bwswb0H
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@MSNBC unsurprisingly got their chief Russian propagandist, @maddow/@MaddowBlog involved on this one, too.
You would think that the Russian collusion hoax imploding would chasten her. Apparently not. pic.twitter.com/xJythsKzNr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
The rush among outlets to go from explosive but unconfirmed reports to gospel truth was contagious.
Here’s just a few stories from @politico: pic.twitter.com/fOnH7u1Fiu
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@thedailybeast broke this story – which I’ve linked to at the end of the thread – which is good and important reporting.
They also pushed the original bounties claim, too. pic.twitter.com/VDTv68Vc3i
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
And you’ll remember that plenty of politicians got involved in this narrative, too.@JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris made it an important component of their campaign.
How many voters’ minds might this conspiracy theory have changed? pic.twitter.com/zmxGUp1dCY
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
And the lower house wasn’t any better. @SpeakerPelosi was probably the worst offender.
In retrospect, it sure looks like Trump was right to call the story – forced out of terrorist detainees – a hoax. pic.twitter.com/F88t8P6sMr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
Of course the trolls, grifters, child predators and the rest of the ghouls at @ProjectLincoln were pushing this one hard.
I try to have grace and charity on here. I can’t muster it with the Lincoln Project. pic.twitter.com/nYqw5PF4so
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
It won’t surprise you that the Never Trump crowd were adamant about this story. Here we see @SteveSchmidtSES, @BillKristol, @therickwilson (plus @mollyjongfast, who like Rick has also blocked me) and no thread would be complete without @JRubinBlogger pic.twitter.com/uuBy3Gtnqn
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
There hasn’t been a more widespread or pernicious conspiracy theory in recent memory than “Russian bounties.” It was always thinly sourced and disputed. Yet it was treated as the gospel truth because Orange Man Bad.
Where are the corrections? Where are the retractions?
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
In many ways, this story was the Russian Collusion hoax in miniature: Trump is bad, so we’ll believe anything that’s said about him, especially if it involves Russia.
A truly shameful showing from those who are meant to tell the American people the truth.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
Let’s be clear, Noah….you claimed that the leaks you got were US intelligence assessments. They weren’t.
Anonymous leaks are dangerous because they are usually partisan hits.
The leakers were wrong and so were you. https://t.co/5n4Mu38y0X
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 15, 2021
Not to mention the sources should be named and shamed.
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) April 15, 2021
Isn’t this the sort of thing that Project Veritas has been exposing over at CNN?
Part 1: Propaganda
Part 2: Deliberately manipulating viewers
Part 3: Pushing one narrative despite evidence to the contrary
This “Russian Bounty” story was a clear case of a “wrap-up smear” tactic that Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained in 2017.
Thanks for explaining it, Nance!
