Accused of flip-flopping by the press on Russian meddling, 71-year-old President Donald Trump clarified that he never said it didn’t happen, only that other countries might have been involved as well. Since former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Trump Oct. 19, 2016 of being a “Putin puppet,” Democrats and their friends in the press have continued the Russian narrative, accusing Trump of colluding with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. Indicting 13 Russian businessmen Friday, former FBI Director now Special Counsel Robert Mueller insists that Russian operatives tried to influence the 2016 vote. He cites Russian operatives posting fake news on Facebook and other social networking sites to favor Trump. Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein was emphatic that no one from the Trump campaign knowingly participated in Russian shenanigans.
When you consider Russian propaganda designed to influence U.S. public opinion and sway voting, Rosenstein pointed out that the indictments were not evidence the 2016 election was changed by Russian covert activity. While Hillary’s Russian conspiracy theory backfired on Election Day, Democrats continue the narrative, not because it’s true, but because it hurts Trump’s approval ratings and help their chances in the 2018 Midterm elections. Democrats hope to ride Hillary’s Russian conspiracy theory through the Midterms, hoping it turns the House and Senate Democratic. Any suggestion—like Rosenstein’s—that Trump didn’t collude with the Kremlin to win the election must be vigorously disputed by Democrats. Mueller’s decision to indict 13 Russian businessmen on conspiracy to interfere with a U.S. election will never go to court, where the facts eventually come out.
Determining where conspiracy ends and everyday propaganda begins is no easy task. Since the end of WW II, the U.S. and now defunct Soviet Union competed for the hearts-and-minds of countries around the globe. Most foreign propaganda about U.S. gun violence, rape, child abuse, poor health care and pollution are designed to show failures of capitalism, certainly the U.S. system. Daily propaganda from foreign sources or inside the U.S. media discredits the Trump administration daily. “I never said Russia did not meddle in the election. I said it may be Russia, or China, or another country or group, or it may be a 400 genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer,” Trump tweeted, refuting the media insisting he flip-flopped. Whatever Trump says, it’s refuted by the press, part of the ongoing war with Trump, reported May 17, 2017 by Harvard’s Schoenstein Center that the media is 90% negative against Trump.
Mueller’s 13 indictments don’t amount to a hill-of-beans, since none of the foreign businessmen will ever face a minute in a U.S. court. It’s easy for Mueller to claim Russian meddling but how much of that differs from the usual-and-customary propaganda that’s occurred since the dark days of the Cold War? Influence peddling by the U.S. and Russia, going both ways, is a fact of life. Just the idea that Facebook posts, no matter how cleverly disguised, have any impact on anyone, especially voters, is not proven. Democrats and the press know that continuing the Trump-Russian conspiracy theory is the best way to change hands in November. House Intelligence Committee Co-Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) says he has plenty evidence to charge Trump with Russian collusion. His only problem is that it doesn’t meet a criminal standard to charge Trump or his associates with anything.
Nearly a year into his job, Mueller’s been unable to charge any Trump associates with Russian collusion, only getting minor perjury convictions or money laundering having nothing to do with the 2016 campaign. Every time Mueller announces indictments, Democrats jump-up-and-down, saying “I told you so.” But the “I told you so” is about Democrats political agenda to drive down Trump’s approval ratings and win back the House and Senate in November. When Trump questions Russian meddling, he’s referring to Democrats’ insistence that he colluded with the Kremlin to win the election. When Hillary told the world why she lost in her 2017 book, “What Happened,” she mentions nothing about her ongoing email scandal while serving as Secretary of State. She likes to blame former FBI Director James Comey and Russians for why she lost the election.
However U.S. intel agencies are convinced Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, Democrats and the media are even more convinced Trump colluded with Kremlin. As long as they keep their narrative going, they have the best shot of retaking Congress in November. Trump’s skeptical of the intel community’s claims because they’ve had a poor track record, insisting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. More recently, Trump questioned why the FBI dropped the ball in Parkland, Fl., missing a tip on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 19-year-old mass shooter Nikolas Cruz. When Trump looks at how his campaign was wiretapped by the FBI and intel community, it’s hard to trust anything about Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation. With the media backing Hillary’s Russian collusion narrative, how could anyone not be skeptical?
