Tomorrow special counsel Robert Mueller will be testifying before congress and there is intense speculation about what he might say. You can bet that the Democrats will be trying to get him to imply that Russian meddling in 2016 helped elect Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
I think that we can all agree that it is wrong for one nation to meddle in the elections of another nation in order to sway it in favor of someone they feel will be of benefit to them. But what is problematic is the way that Americans sanctimoniously condemn such actions when other nations do it to them but think it is perfectly fine when the US does the same thing, and worse, to other nations.
Mehdi Hasan provides a brief history of the utterly egregious meddling that the US has done in other countries (including Russia) that go well beyond email hacks and Facebook fake news that the Russians are accused of doing. And of course that does not even include things like sponsoring coups, assassinating other countries’ leaders, and actual invasions.
Also, if you’re going to get upset about foreigners manipulating elections by publishing “fake news”, what about Rupert Murdoch?
I have never believed the Russians had much effect in the 2016 (?) US elections. Oh maybe a little but not much. No more than usual.
On the other hand, if we look at American Israeli supporters, Israelis and Saudi Arabia. Just how much money came from them?
Putin and the Russian Cabinet are not that stupid. Have you seen Sergei Lavrov in action compared to that idiot Pompeo?
I remember watching Putin and, IIRC, Lavrov in their first meeting with Trump and whoever Trump’s first Secretary of State was, and thinking, “The Americans do not even realize how outclassed they are!” Twenty or thirty years of experience against three or four months?