The Russians are Coming! And They're YOU: Chuck Todd Presents the Infiltration of the Conservative Movement

I wish I could write this in Russian, because that may be your primary language.

Sorry — all I know is “da” and “nyet.”

On Meet the Press Sunday, NBC moderator Chuck Todd and a guest took the indictment of Russian national Marina Butina and ran with it, jumped up, swung, flipped, twisted, flew, and landed on an all-but-logical conclusion: “all levels of the conservative movement” have been infiltrated by the Russians!

The FBI arrested Butina earlier this month on suspicion of being an agent lobbying U.S. politicians in order to reduce Russian sanctions. Purportedly, she was attempting to use the NRA to gain access to the White House.

No evidence suggests she succeeded in any way; however, Todd opened with this:

“Maria Butina loves guns, cultivated conservatives, and is now in jail, arrested as a Russian agent. Does she hold the key to an NRA/Russia connection?”

“The key to an NRA/Russia connection??”

Then, the juice:

“It sounds like something ripped from a spy movie or a reboot of The Americans: a young Russian woman accused of conspiring to influence American conservative politics on behalf of Russian intelligence.”

She was attempting to reach only conservatives? Doesn’t sound like it. Here are a few excerpts from The Washington Times:

“[Butina’s] alleged crime was failing to register with the U.S Justice Department as required as a foreign operative. Her mission: try to influence the Barack Obama administration and then the Trump government.”

…

“There is no allegation of Ms. Butina affecting any specific law or policy.”

…

“Her activities as described by an FBI agent appear akin to the role of a schmoozing a foreign diplomat. She attended the National Prayer Breakfast, went to political events, organized dinners, invited the NRA to Moscow and used the NRA to meet political figures.”

…

“The affidavit said Ms. Butina and…sought to establish ties to American politicians and influence the government’s decision-making process.”

…

“One of their operations begun in 2015 was to ingratiate themselves to the NRA and use those associations to make contact with Republicans who support the gun rights group.”

Todd continued:

“[I]nvestigators say she worked to gain access to American political operatives, conservative politicians and political groups, including the Trump campaign and, more importantly in this story, the NRA.”

Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent (and former reporter for NBC) Michael Isikoff added that Butina “kept showing up at conservative political events, CPAC conferences, national prayer breakfasts, NRA meetings, conventions.”

Okay…

Referring to the Republican Party, Chuck waxed:

“This was a whole infiltration plan.”

Isikia explained that the GOP is basically controlled by the NRA:

“The goal here was to change the Republican Party’s attitude toward Russia. … Who has more influence with Republican members of Congres,s especially, than the NRA? … They spend more money. They’re the most powerful special interest group. So the idea was, Butina sets up this Russian gun rights organization to forge this alliance with NRA members as a way of influencing the Republican Party.”

Then Chuck asked a doozy:

“We’ll focus sometimes on the Russia/Trump angle, we focus on the NRA…this larger investigation’s gonna be known as what? It looks to me like a Russian infiltration campaign on all levels of the conservative movement in this country. Is that what happened?”

Isika affirmed:

“That’s exactly what seems to be happening. This was as much a part of the Russian influence campaign as the cyber-attacks, as the phony Facebook ads, the Twitter bots, all of that.”

So Russia’s alleged running of Butina wasn’t merely an attempt to affect American policy, using the NRA — among other groups — to reach levels of influence. Rather, according to Meet the Press, it’s all part of the 2016 anti-Hillary meddling and the Trump/Russia connection, as Moscow burrows into the entirety of the conservative movement, because we’re…well…we’re all just so doggone shady.

Sigh.

Anyway, I’m Alex Parker, and this is Red Dawn. I mean, RedState.