Trump's 2020 Moscow Team in Place: Putin's Dirty Tricks Machine Tuned and Already On-Line

Putin is a stand-up comedian: Yuk, Yuk, Yuk

(In Russian: Юк, Юк, Юк)

Whew boy, here we go again, but worse than 2016 – hang on tight.

The story: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) – working with Russia to smear and discredit Joe Biden:

Two Main Points:

On July 24, 2020: William Evanina, Director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center published a somewhat vague warning about various forms of foreign interference in the upcoming election.

On August 7, 2020: Evanina followed up with a more direct and incriminating one, specifically warning that Russia is working to help reelect Donald Trump. Even more important is what this warning unmistakably implies: That Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are actively cooperating with Russia’s campaign.

Well-Known Fact: Trump obviously always responds with rage at the suggestion that Russia wants him to win, let alone that he is accepting the assistance.

So Evanina’s summary delicately surrounds the revelations about Trump and Moscow with superficially balancing material. The report highlights three countries that want to influence the election: Russia, China, and Iran. The report notes that the latter two want Trump to lose, while Russia wants him to win. This seems intended to let Republicans claim that there is foreign interference on both sides. And it’s true, as far as it goes. But the comparisons end there. 

What is China doing to defeat Trump? Its government has “grown increasingly critical of the current Administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues.” 

And Iran’s efforts “probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content.” 

In others words, Iran and China are undermining Trump by criticizing him in public remarks, possibly including some mean tweets.

Russia’s efforts to help Trump include all that. In addition, the statement notes, “Pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption. That includes publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party.”

Derkach and his Russian allies despise Biden, who spearheaded the administration’s efforts to reform Ukraine, rein in its oligarchs, and diminish Russian influence. They have attempted to depict Biden’s reform efforts as a corrupt plot to enrich his son Hunter. Derkach has been working openly with Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 

None of this is a secret.

Here are the two of them meeting in Kiev in December 2019:

Rudy Gee and Andriy Derkach in Kiev

“Rudy just met in #Ukraine with former pro-#Russia MP Andriy Derkach just days ahead of peace talks between #Ukraine’s President Zelensky and Putin🇷🇺.#Ukraine’s president learned of Rudy’s arrival FROM THE MEDIA.”

Note: Equally shocked by Rudy's arrival was the U.S. embassy.

Giuliani told the Washington Post earlier this summer that Derkach “doesn’t seem pro-Russian to me.” In case that ruse was fooling anybody, U.S. intelligence officially described Derkach as an organ of Russian political interference.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee are holding hearings in an attempt to substantiate this charge — or, more realistically, to insinuate it. They have produced no evidence to advance their charge. 

The Russians gave Republicans stolen tapes of secret conversations Biden held with Ukrainians during his tenure as vice-president, and pro-Trump media outlets have hyped up the material, but nothing they have is inconsistent with the narrative that mainstream news organizations found.

Biden was working to clean up Ukraine. Senate Republicans tried to be cagey about their activities. After pro-Russian Ukrainians said they’d passed materials on to Republican officials, a Johnson staffer told NBC News the committee did not receive any opposition research, he not say whether or not any materials from foreign sources were exchange or not.

The Washington Post reported that Sen. Johnson did receive secret documents from the Ukrainians. Former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has confessed to putting Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and perhaps Trump’s most energetic defender on all things Russia, in touch with one of the Ukrainians releasing documents in the United States.

There is hardly any secret to what they’re up to.

Johnson says he plans to release his report on Biden in September. It hardly matters if the information Russia gives him actually substantiates his allegations, or even whether it is authentic.

The obvious plan is to splash some headlines into news screens in the heat of the campaign that seem to connect Biden to some kind of wrongdoing thus stain him for Trump supporters. In reality, all that is not a scandal about Biden at all. But, it’s a scandal nevertheless, but about Republican cooperation with a Russian propaganda campaign and Sen. Ron Johnson leading that pack.

I note: Vladimir Putin is primed, on board, and hyped to get it on.

Social Media Pic Ready for “Guccifer 2.0 types” to use

My 2 cents: This story and my previous link say it all. 

Thanks for stopping by.