If the mainstream media were as committed to uncovering the truth about Russian election interference as they are to falsely portraying President Trump as a friend of Vladimir Putin, they’d have a lot more questions for Barack Obama and his national security “experts.”
After all, the Mueller report makes it clear that the Obama administration was notified about Russia’s scheme to intervene in U.S. politics back in 2014, establishing a sophisticated intelligence campaign that was put into action over the following two years. Though he knew well ahead of the 2016 election — Obama chose to do next to nothing about it.
The best place to start is with Rod Rosenstein – who himself has finally admitted that the Obama administration left him holding the bag regarding the Mueller investigation .
In 2016, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice even reportedly instructed officials to “stand down,” preventing them from developing proper retaliation strategies against Putin.
Then there is the hiding in plain sight in bright neon flashing colors clue of Susan Rice and her Jan. 20, 2017 memo where she 1) admits President Obama had prior knowledge of the 2016 Russia investigation and related issues and 2) that he, President Obama, insisted James Comey do the investigation “by the book.”
President Obama — not President Trump — allowed a foreign adversary to interfere in our election and undermine our democratic process. If journalists were truly interested in accurately covering Russia’s ongoing effort to interfere in our election,s they would be focused on finding objective truth and they would be asking a lot more questions about President Obama’s jaw-dropping failure to stop the Kremlin’s operations.
Of course, the media remains obsessed with the Trump-Russia “collusion” hoax that Special Counsel Robert Mueller thoroughly debunked after conducting a lengthy and expensive investigation. Even now, no one in the fake news media is bothering to follow up and ask fundamental questions to determine why the Obama administration did nothing as Russia brazenly tried to meddle in the 2016 election.
During a recent airing of “The Lead,” CNN’s Jake Tapper attacked President Trump for criticizing the media’s coverage of the Mueller report, implying that the president should be doing more to push back against Moscow. This is simply Tapper pushing the left’s agenda and quoting almost verbatim from the New York Times (a reliable source … eyeroll).
Predictably, as is often the case with such “news” reports, Tapper referenced a conversation with an unnamed government official who claims to have deep knowledge of President Trump’s foreign policy strategy toward Russia.
“A U.S. government official telling me today it’s like, quote, ‘pulling teeth’ to get the White House to focus on the very real ongoing threat of continued Russian election interference,” Tapper said. “‘In general, senior White House staff felt it wasn’t a good idea to bring up issues related to Russia in front of the president,’ the official told me.” I’m starting to think that this “official” was Tapper’s imaginary childhood friends.
The CNN host continued scolding the president, noting that his source described how “the Department of Homeland Security tried repeatedly over the last year or so to set up more cabinet-level meetings leading up to the midterms and after the midterms,” and how these attempts were blocked by the White House. This is news to many of us in the national security arena who work with Homeland Security and know for a fact that there is a robust effort to examine threat vectors and establish countermeasures to counter the threat.
“Critics say this is a stunning example of a president paying insufficient attention to a security threat,” he insisted. “I’m told it’s an ongoing threat.” This “anonymous” person is getting all around Washington … and as we know from the past two years — anonymous sources are nearly always wrong.
Determined journalists can always find a disgruntled official who will tell them anything they want to hear if they dig far enough. Of course, one could also find anonymous sources who would quickly dispute the aforementioned claims. In this case, I’m skeptical that there is any source.
The Tapper attack is absurd on its face since President Trump himself has publicly called for the use of paper ballots and for securing the election process against the Russians.
Unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump has been tough on Russia, pushing back against Moscow’s interventions in Ukraine and Syria. The Trump White House even authorized new sanctions against Russia to further undermine Putin’s geopolitical aspirations, something Obama didn’t do until it was already too late.
Plus, there is ongoing work supported by the administration to secure the vote and address the threat issues.
I have personally testified this year before the Pennsylvania and Texas legislatures on the issue of countering the Russian threat and securing the voting system — I’ve met with senior Georgia legislative leadership and have also spent time at the federal level on Capitol Hill working to make sure the 2020 election cycle is prepared to deal with threats from Russia and other foreign adversaries. I’m now preparing for similar discussions in Florida with its state leadership. This is a comprehensive effort focused on swing states to work to insure institutions are both aware of threat and select the right techniques and technology to counter the threat.
Apparently, the administration’s pubic efforts and partnerships to counter threats are not of interest to Tapper because it runs counter to the left’s talking points.
There has been virtually no reporting on the unsettling facts about Obama’s weak response to Russian meddling, drowning them in a bottomless ocean of misleading “collusion” coverage intended to take down President Trump. Yet, if they were truly in the news business and not the liberal talking point business, the news media would start digging in now to seek the truth about what Barack Obama did about Russia’s election interference starting in 2014. It’s never too late…and some of us are actually working to secure the next election and not grandstand like Jake Tapper.