Here’s former congressman and nationally syndicated talkshow host Joe Walsh on Twitter today:
Robert Mueller today proved conclusively that Russia attacked our election process.
This should anger all Americans. And yet, President Trump didn't condemn Russia today. Not at all.
That's pretty small of him.
An indictment by the Justice Department doesn’t conclusively prove anything, Joe. It’s a formal accusation. It’s a complaint, information prior to proceeding to the courts.
You might want to wait until there is a conviction. But I suppose we don’t do that anymore.
OK, for the sake of argument, let’s say the Russians actually went on social media, created fake accounts, and tried to “influence” the election. How is this any different than any other number of anonymous users doing the same thing? Millions of Americans with anonymous accounts tried to influence the election by posting their comments about Clinton and Trump. Should the DOJ go after them? Isn’t that “information warfare” as well?
Major corporate news networks tried to get Trump defeated with all kinds of accusations. Only difference is they were not anonymous.
Do you remember Putin kicking out the National Endowment for Democracy a couple years ago? It’s funded by Congress and specializes in influencing elections.
“Using Russian commercial and noncommercial organizations under its control, the National Endowment for Democracy participated in work to declare the results of election campaigns illegitimate, organize political actions intended to influence decisions made by the authorities, and discredit service in Russia’s armed forces,” a statement issued by the Russian government said.
George Soros’ Open Society Institute was also kicked out—and for good reason. He tries to swing elections. He tried to influence European elections in 2014 and Malaysia’s elections in 2018.
But never mind Soros. What about the US government?
The LA Times reported in 2016:
The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries—it's done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.
That number doesn't include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn't like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring.
This Russian influence meme—minus any solid evidence—is spreading like a pandemic. Now Trump thinks the Russians tried to swing the election—in his favor!
Here’s what the Russians are guilty of—posting negative information about the United States. Is that a crime? How is it any different than negative commentary and reporting about the US in France, Britain, Italy, or anywhere else? It’s not.
There’s a subplot here. It’s an effort by the establishment to ban any negative information or opinions about the government from social media. That’s what the whole “fake news” push is all about.
Be careful, Joe.
If the Democrats win back Congress during the midterms, they might go after conservatives like yourself. It’s a two way street.