In this issue of The Most Trusted Name in News™…

You gotta hand it to CNN. In a hilarious way, I mean. Its reputation as a legitimate news outlet long ago shattered, and its obsession — along with the obsession of the entire Democrat Party — with all things “Russia!” is legendary, yet CNN is already caricaturing itself at a level unmatched. Except, perhaps, by The Babylon Bee, the smartest satire site in the known universe. So buckle your seatbelts, gang.

This… is CNN.

As CNN itself “reported,” Homeland Security and other national security officials are worried that Russia could “significantly exploit” U.S. divisions over the November midterms, and are considering scenarios like the Ruskies “staging smaller hacks of local election authorities — done with the deliberate purpose of being noticed — and then using the pretense to seed more conspiracies about the integrity of our elections.”

These efforts, the officials said, according to CNN, “would be designed to dovetail with the false doubts about the 2020 presidential election spread by former President Donald Trump and many of his allies.”

Ah, see? It will “again” be Trump’s fault. [rolling-eyes emoji]

The following graphic is absolutely hilarious in its “irrational rationality” — CNN-style.

HOW U.S. OFFICIALS BELIEVE A RUSSIAN THREAT TO ELECTIONS COULD PLAY OUT

Russian hackers breach a local county voter registration system, making sure to get detected.

Post information and proudly take responsibility rather than blame third-party hackers.

Other Kremlin-backed forces would amplify problems on Facebook & Twitter to churn up angry reactions.

How many times have we heard that song-and-dance routine over the last six years? (Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and Adam Schiff were unavailable for comment.)

Um, CNN? Why would "Russia" undermine the 2022 midterm elections against the DEMOCRATS? You didn't think this one through at all, did you? pic.twitter.com/uEcSwUsvsk

— Dr. Hold My Beer’s Ministry of Truth (@RealLibSmacker) June 20, 2022

This is the most ridiculous nonsense I have seen in quite a while. As suggested in the above tweet, CNN, you clowns obviously didn’t think this one through, at all, did you? It gets better.

“Shockingly,” CNN said the Biden administration agrees with the notion that such a “convergence of Russian asymmetric warfare techniques” is likely and that that little has been done to convince voters that Russia will “again” attempt to hijack U.S. elections.

Nicole Tisdale, who until April was the legislative affairs director at the National Security Council and previously served as the director for cybersecurity and counterintelligence with the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN:

If something small happens, it will feed into the mania and chaos, and all of a sudden people will think all the elections are completely insecure. It’s not about fixing a small problem so that it doesn’t become a bigger problem. It’s about what happens when folks feel there’s been any leak in the boat, and folks thinking that the whole thing could sink.

And an “unnamed U.S. official involved in election security” said, according to CNN, that Russia doesn’t even have to do anything prior to the midterms and still be successful in disrupting the results.

Russia doesn’t have to do anything in advance of the election — just observe where operational challenges occur and use that issue to exploit the subsequent distrust and division. The asymmetrical advantage is astounding.

Adrienne Ray, the elections supervisor and registrar in Peach County, Georgia, told CNN she feels “under siege, trying to keep her systems from being at the center of a story about international espionage.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Then again, you don’t have to — CNN’s all over it.

In the meantime, said Ray, she relies on her “IT guy,” while taking online classes about election security offered by the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “International espionage,” Russia-style. And this woman is taking online classes about election security to thwart it. Perfect.

I’m not a whiz at what these people could do. But we try our best to be as secure as possible. … Do I know if I’m getting everything I need to know? I don’t know.

Memo to Adrienne Ray: Neither does CNN.

Finally, as reported by AP in April, Department of Homeland Security officials suggest that Vladimir Putin may attempt to use the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as a pretext to order a new campaign to interfere in the upcoming elections. Why?

Why would Putin want to punish Biden, of all people, arguably the most inept president in the history of the U.S presidency? Why would Putin want to hurt Democrat chances in November? Or Biden’s chances in 2024? Or any Democrat nominee — in favor of Donald Trump or any Republican nominee?

I could be wrong, of course, but I think Putin’s Russia would love to see as many more years as possible of total Democrat control in D.C. Sorry, I’m not buying.

Anyway, almost sheepishly, CNN included this disclaimer: “The five current and former U.S. officials who spoke to CNN stressed that such a scenario remains hypothetical.” No kidding? Besides, CNN wouldn’t have asked these officials loaded questions to generate possible — yet very useful to CNN for political expediency purposes — right? Nah, CNN is way too “most trusted” for those kinds of shenanigans.

The bottom line:

With Democrats firmly believing that Trump and his allies will do everything they can to manipulate future election results, and the latter believing to their core that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen,” who the hell needs Vladimir Putin and the Russians to muck up the 2022 midterm elections and beyond?

Related on RedState:

ABC and Other Networks Tweeting About Result of Midterms Causes Consternation

MSNBC’s Midterms Meltdown Couldn’t Be More Beautiful: ‘We Have to Put Trump on the Ballot’

Continuing Collapse of Key 2020 Demographic Shows ‘Bleak’ 2024 Outlook for Biden