🧵Thread🧵 At some point, we need to have a reckoning about the ways that Dems & the media pushed the “Russian collusion” narrative - absent any evidence - and how they’ve refused to revisit it as the narrative has fallen apart. Just in case you’ve forgotten how bad it was👇
We have to start here with @HillaryClinton, whose team invented this smear. All of these were from before the election. The timing is important because we just learned today that US intel was worried about how Russia would use Clinton’s concocted attacks:
thefederalist.com/2020/10/06/bre…
Of course, she wasn’t alone. Shortly behind her was @SpeakerPelosi, who took the fabricated allegations and, along with the rest of congressional Dems, whipped them into a firestorm unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
One of the key voices in all this, of course, was @RepAdamSchiff, who showboated his way to national attention. When Mueller couldn’t find anything to validate Schiff’s claims, he pushed them anyway. It’s a conspiracy theory at this rate.
Clinton’s running mate, @timkaine, ran with the allegations before the election and, as a member of the Senate, has continued to push the “Russian collusion” narrative, through impeachment and beyond.
He isn’t on twitter but again it’s really hard to overstate the role of Harry Reid in the creation of everything dumb and bad in our present politics.
One of my favorite characters in all this has been @tedlieu. I’m not sure that boosting the reliability of Brennan, Christopher Steele, or the FISA Court has aged particularly well.
Suffice it to say that there were more Dems, but we’ve got other key players to get to. Here’s @dccc summing it up.
From the Dems’ mouths to the media’s ears, as ever. Perhaps the worst booster of the “Russian collusion” narrative was @MSNBC. That includes pushing @HillaryClinton’s refusal to concede the election. And they had @petestrzok on.
But the worst element has to be @Maddow, who boosted every firing idea and story you can imagine. I’ve only got enough room for a handful. There’s no two ways around it: This. Is. A. Conspiracy. Theory.
She wasn’t alone at her program. @chrislhayes was pushing just about all of the same talking points, including the mother of all wingnut theories, that Trump had been a Russian asset since 1987.
For those interested, I’ve got a whole thread on Russian asset since 1987 smear, originally put to paper by @jonathanchait:
But they’ve got competition even from their own outlet. Here’s @JoyAnnReid, who never sees a left wing conspiracy that she isn’t interested in, with a special shout-out to @MalcolmNance, a longtime booster of Russian collusion. Also, not sure the Fusion GPS endorsement held up.
You may have forgotten that @CNN had three journalists who had to resign after a retracted story alleging a connection between Trump and Russia. That may not have even been their worst reporting. Shoutout to @CillizzaCNN.
There was plenty more from @nytimes but I got hung up on the fact that their scenario planning was basically limited to “bad for Trump” to “jail” - in retrospect, that hasn’t exactly held up well.
I think this one from @TIME is pretty clear.
And then there’s @BuzzFeedNews, who gave us the thoroughly debunked Steele dossier. But to me, the best part is their suggestion of “icing on the cake” related to Putin. Just incredible journalism.
For those interested, I did a full thread on the Steele dossier as well. It has since imploded.
As ever, the galaxy brain blue checks got involved on this one. Here’s @JuddLegum.
Obligatory @kurteichenwald mention, all of these from before the election.
I will never forgive myself for supporting the candidacy of @EvanMcMullin. I was bamboozled, I’ll admit it.
And @KeithOlbermann had a nightly rant about this for months.
Where is the follow up? From anyone, at all, about any of this? The Russian Collusion hoax has fallen apart more and more everyday. And we haven’t heard a word of comment from any of the people responsible for pushing it and helping fracture this country.
If you aren’t outraged by all this, and the clear coordination across multiple organs of the US government, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know how to convince you to care that the POTUS has been undermined for four years by a malicious lie from his political opponents.
I’ve said this before and I’ll have to say it again: you don’t need to be a fan of Trump to be outraged about the Russian collusion conspiracy. But it’s a mark against your patriotism, your judgement, or your intellect if you aren’t.
Second, new thread is live on “Russian collusion”
