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[Official] Russia Endorsing Sanders, Again, Set to Interfere on His Behalf, Again

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Os Trigonum, Feb 21, 2020.

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  1. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    deserves its own thread

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...d396a6-54bd-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html

    Bernie Sanders briefed by U.S. officials that Russia is trying to help his presidential campaign
    By
    Shane Harris,
    Ellen Nakashima,
    Michael Scherer and
    Sean Sullivan
    Feb. 21, 2020 at 4:16 p.m. EST

    U.S. officials have told Sen. Bernie Sanders that Russia is attempting to help his presidential campaign as part of an effort to interfere with the Democratic contest, according to people familiar with the matter.

    President Trump and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also been informed about the Russian assistance to the Vermont senator, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

    It is not clear what form that Russian assistance has taken. U.S. prosecutors found a Russian effort in 2016 to use social media to boost Sanders’s campaign against Hillary Clinton, part of a broader effort to hurt Clinton, sow dissension in the American electorate and ultimately help elect Donald Trump.

    “I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president,” Sanders said in a statement to The Washington Post. “My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.

    “In 2016, Russia used Internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020. Some of the ugly stuff on the Internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters.”

    A spokesperson for the Sanders campaign declined to comment on the briefing by U.S. officials on Russia’s efforts.

    Sanders has frequently warned about the threat of foreign interference in U.S. elections and criticized Trump for not doing enough to stop it.

    “Let me be clear: We must not live in denial while allowing Russia and other state actors to undermine our democracy or divide us,” the senator in January. “Russia targets the divisions in our society; we will work to heal those divisions.”

    Sanders’s opponents have blamed some of his most vocal online supporters for injecting toxic rhetoric into the primaries. At a Democratic candidates debate Wednesday in Las Vegas, Sanders indirectly blamed Russia, saying it was possible that malign actors were trying to manipulate social media to inflame divisions among Democrats.

    “All of us remember 2016, and what we remember is efforts by Russians and others to try to interfere in our elections and divide us up,” Sanders said. “I’m not saying that’s happening, but it would not shock me.”

    Also this week, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Russia had “developed a preference” for Trump in the 2020 campaign — an assessment that infuriated the president. Trump lambasted his acting intelligence director, Joseph Maguire, and DNI staff for sharing that information with lawmakers, believing that Democrats would use it to hurt Trump in the election.

    Despite Trump’s skepticism of Russian efforts to damage American democracy, officials in his administration have repeatedly warned that Russia has ongoing plans to interfere in U.S. elections and foster divisions among Americans, part of a strategic goal to undermine U.S. standing in the world. Some analysts believe the Kremlin’s goal is to cause maximum disruption within the United States and that it throws the support of its hackers and trolls behind candidates based on that goal, not any particular affinity for the people running.

    After Sanders’s remarks at the debate, some social media analysts were skeptical of the notion that Russians already were masquerading as the candidate’s supporters.

    “We have seen no evidence in open sources during this election cycle that an online community of Sanders supporters, known as Bernie bros, were catalyzed by what Sanders suggested could be ‘Russian interference,’ ” said Graham Brookie, director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, which tracks disinformation on social media sites. “Any candidate or public official casually introducing the possibility of Russian influence without providing any evidence or context creates a specter of interference that makes responding to real interference harder.”

    It now appears, however, that Sanders may have had a reason to suspect Russia was again injecting itself into the U.S. electoral process, repeating some of what occurred in 2016.

    In a February 2018 indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three companies that were alleged to have orchestrated the 2016 social media scheme, prosecutors alleged that the group “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”

    Prosecutors alleged that in February 2016, while Clinton and Sanders were locked in a bitter battle for the Democratic nomination, an internal memo was circulated at the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which prosecutors said led the online effort, instructing their paid online trolls to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).”

    The Internet Research Agency was bankrolled by a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin, according to U.S. officials.

    Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.

    ​
     
    #1 Os Trigonum, Feb 21, 2020
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  2. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    The awesome thing is how Bernie responded in totally different manner than Trump. He didn't welcome the interference. His party didn't try and prevent people from knowing about it or try and cancel measures to protect our elections. Well Done, Bernie.

    This is just another clear cut example of how less radical Sanders is than Trump. Absolutely a clear cut night and day response between Bernie and Trump.
     
    #2 FranchiseBlade, Feb 21, 2020
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  3. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    Putin's trolling the whole country.
     
    #3 Andre0087, Feb 21, 2020
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  4. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    I'm glad Sanders is taking this seriously instead of just dismissing it as the "Deep State"..
     
    #4 rocketsjudoka, Feb 21, 2020
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  5. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Should we include CNN as useful idiots as they are so trigger happy in reporting anonymous unverified Twitter comments as news?
     
    #5 fchowd0311, Feb 21, 2020
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  6. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    #6 Os Trigonum, Feb 21, 2020
  7. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    It makes sense for Russia to support Sanders - which they must calculate would produce the most division between Trump and also allow Trump the best chance of victory.
     
    #7 Sweet Lou 4 2, Feb 21, 2020
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  8. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Or they just know the media will report it and make people distrust the system. Do you think Putin is so dumb that he wouldn't know this type of stuff would leak and make it to American news networks?

    When you contemplate Putin's motives, contemplate it with an understanding that he knows the American media is going to report on it and spread it.
     
    #8 fchowd0311, Feb 21, 2020
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  9. Amiga

    Amiga 10 years ago...
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    It makes sense. Of course, the difference is the response. Rarely do we have such a clear apple to apple comparison. Here we have one and know exactly how one person is an American and the other is a ....
     
    #9 Amiga, Feb 21, 2020
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  10. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    The 3 main groups that want Bernie to get the nomination- Bernie supporters, Trump supporters, and Russia.
     
    #10 TheFreak, Feb 21, 2020
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  11. Major

    Major Member

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    Regardless of whether media reports it, it still is the right move if Russia's trying to get Trump elected. I don't think Russia cares that we know - they have an ally in the White House who's not interested in doing anything about it. Their primary goal is simply to keep him there.
     
    #11 Major, Feb 21, 2020
  12. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    I think it’s more simple. He believes Bernie creates division with the Dems and he also knows that his presidency would be more beneficial to Russian expansion than Biden.

    FWIW I think this is actually a miscalculation on Putin’s part. He was correct in 2016 that creating a division with Bernie supporters and Hillary was a good idea for Trump but straight up giving Bernie the runway to the presidency would be a “careful what you wish for” moment for Trump. I don’t think he’s nearly as easy to beat as Trump, Putin, and the corporate media think he is. I also don’t believe once in power that he’ll be as isolationist as Putin believes.

    What Putin wants is for the US to leave the Middle East and he wants no accountability for corruption and crime abroad. Keep in mind that the Russian political power house of money that keeps Putin in power is actually not in Russia but abroad in shell companies and laundering organizations like VT bank who then disperse the money within companies like the Trump org.

    What Putin needs more than anything is someone as president who will turn a blind eye to the mob like web he’s built globally. Joe Biden would be a disaster for him. Kamala Harris was targeted first for good reason. He thinks Bernie is going to be an isolationist in working with our allies on things like corruption... I think he is wrong.

    But we’d be kidding if we thought that Putin really WANTED Bernie. We know it’s Trump he wants with a second term to get out of NATO. Bernie will not get out of NATO even though he might get out of the Middle East completely.
     
    #12 dobro1229, Feb 21, 2020
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  13. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    I don't think our intelligence department is that easily manipulated
     
    #13 Sweet Lou 4 2, Feb 21, 2020
  14. tmoney1101

    tmoney1101 Contributing Member

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    My reply from the other thread...


    “I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president,” Sanders said in a statement to The Washington Post. “My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.“ - Bernie

    meanwhile Moscow Mitch has a stack of election security bills on his desk that he’s not even willing to bring to the floor.

    this is exactly what Putin wants, delegitimize our elections. Trump and his supporters will be frothing at the mouth to invalidate the outcome when he goes down. 2020 will be the biggest test of our democracy in our lifetime.
     
    #14 tmoney1101, Feb 21, 2020
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  15. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    russia is trying to cause chaos... nothing more...
     
    #15 dachuda86, Feb 21, 2020
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  16. baller4life315

    baller4life315 Contributing Member

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    What Russia wants: Bernie to win the primary

    Also what Russia wants: Trump to get re-elected
     
    #16 baller4life315, Feb 21, 2020
    SamFisher, RayRay10, dachuda86 and 1 other person like this.
  17. tmoney1101

    tmoney1101 Contributing Member

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    #17 tmoney1101, Feb 22, 2020
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  18. Jayzers_100

    Jayzers_100 Member

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    Fair. But can you at least admit that Bernie acknowledges the intel coming from Trump’s own security advisers while Trump is denying the claims? I think it’s way past time that all the former living presidents band together and ask for Trump to step down
     
    #18 Jayzers_100, Feb 22, 2020
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  19. JayGoogle

    JayGoogle Member

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    As the wired article states, they just want maximum chaos first. I'm sure they prefer Trump to win because he's a loose cannon and he also does exactly what Russia wants on the international stage...but they could twist Bernie winning for them too.

    We know if that were to happen Trump would definitely say the election was rigged, fixed, etc etc and who knows what happens from there. I'm not going to go all Bill Maher and suggest that he's going to refuse to leave office and try a coup, but he's going to continue to whine about how unfair it was, how the election was rigged.

    All Russia wants to do is make Americans lose faith in their democracy. That's what they do around the world.
     
    #19 JayGoogle, Feb 22, 2020
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  20. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    Russia wants us to tear each other apart. Don't buy any of this Russia bullshit.
     
    #20 dachuda86, Feb 22, 2020
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