Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, arrive to speak to reporters following a closed-door strategy session that included Vice President Mike Pence, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Mitch McConnell has become the subject of a media onslaught in the past two weeks, starting with MSNBC labeling him “Moscow Mitch” for blocking a partisan election bill. It didn’t matter that the bill in question included unsupportable things like felons voting and federal interference into state elections. All that mattered is McConnell didn’t rubber stamp it so he must be a Russian agent.
This is the level of absurdity currently in our discourse. As I pointed out earlier in the week, Tulsi Gabbard is also now being called a Russian agent because she dared to call out Kamala Harris at a debate. No one is safe from the charge if you find yourself on the opposite side of Democrat party orthodoxy.
The silly attacks on McConnell culminated into what is a current full court press by The Washington Post. This includes a daily churn of multiple opinion pieces all saying the same thing – that the Senate Majority Leader is in hock with the Russians.
Here’s a sampling of that.
Milbank: Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset https://t.co/g3TgD4GytD
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 27, 2019
Mitch McConnell has been key to helping Russian oligarchs with ties to Putin skirt U.S. sanctions and invest in an aluminum mill in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. My Sunday column… https://t.co/q8dctEMFn8
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) August 3, 2019
Opinion: McConnell’s new posture toward Moscow https://t.co/F9rOAyutXn
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 3, 2019
This is pure nonsense that ignores McConnell’s history of opposing Russian malfeasance. He’s also been doing so long before most Democrats, who only seemed to learn that Russia existed after the 2016 election. It wasn’t that long ago that Barack Obama and the media were relentlessly mocking Mitt Romney for having the audacity to label the Kremlin as our chief geopolitical enemy in 2012. What a rube, right?
Mitch McConnell has steadily supported a host of measures that Russia opposes — INF withdrawal, Syria intervention, military buildup, nuclear modernization, Magnitsky Act, and voted against New START.
But an aluminum mill in-state is a smoking gun. Ok. https://t.co/D2dYU3qSux
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) August 3, 2019
Eventually, President Trump would respond by taking a shot back at The Washington Post in defense of McConnell. This of course led to the newspaper to cry foul because they have no sense of irony.
https://twitter.com/alx/status/1156336817408479232
The Post claimed that Trump’s claim was “unfounded.” But was it? Let’s have a look.
Here’s a poll found in the @washingtonpost that says 49% of Russians don’t oppose web censorship. pic.twitter.com/BFsS6QJUvA
— John Ashbrook (@JohnAshbrook) August 3, 2019
WATCH: Washington Post Took Money From Russia to Publish Kremlin Propaganda – @OANN pic.twitter.com/PnmbQ8PZzy
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 1, 2019
"State executions of Putin critics poorly disguised as random street crime is down 14 percent from last year, giving international investors a new sense of confidence for the future." https://t.co/Oo5mQrkurM
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 3, 2019
Hey @Milbank, how much $ was your company paid to print this Russian propaganda ahead of '16? https://t.co/oqGt4vmQDG pic.twitter.com/2G8xLPXW9S
— John Ashbrook (@JohnAshbrook) August 3, 2019
Here's where the @washingtonpost printing pre$$e$ pretend Russia was saving the Crimea from Ukraine. #PolitburoPost pic.twitter.com/0N0Bu1vKvV
— John Ashbrook (@JohnAshbrook) August 3, 2019
What you are seeing are inserts in The Washington Post that were bought and paid for by the Russians. To be clear, the “articles” published by The Post in exchange for Kremlin cash are nothing but propaganda. They run the gambit from promoting censorship, to painting the Russians as the good guys in Crimea, to promoting sanctions relief.
Let’s also note this isn’t the first time the Post has been caught profiting from printing garbage fed to them by authoritarian regimes. You can find examples of them doing the same thing for China at this link.
Now, the same newspaper that cashed checks from Russia and China to spread their nonsense, often at the cost of American interests, wants to accuse others of being a “Russian asset.” Yeah, they don’t get to do that. Not without their hypocrisy being pointed out. The Washington Post and the media at large have been Putin’s best friend the past three years. Their relentless pushing of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories while swallowing a disinformation campaign wholesale gave the Kremlin exactly what they wanted. The division, discord, and handicapping of the current administration was more than Russia ever dreamed they’d get after election night in 2016.
We could also point out how the Post has been operating as a mouthpiece for Qatar, employing and publishing authors for years that are directly supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood and their operations. Pushing Iranian propaganda is not outside their purview either.
If there’s one entity in this country that has no right to call anyone else an “asset” of a hostile foreign government, it’s The Washington Post. In fact, the kind of neo-McCarthyism they continue to traffic in only helps the Russians.
In reality, that’s not the Post’s concern though. They don’t actually care about the harm they are doing or whether Russia is interfering in elections. Their motivation is purely partisan politics and they are willing to continue to push trash that is objectively bad for America as long as it means getting to slap at Republicans. That says nothing good about their dumpster fire of a newspaper.
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