The Russia Reversal, Continued

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, October 27, 2017
The Wall Street Journal throws its hat into the Russia Reversal ring, with a piece by Kimberley A. Strassel headlined: "The Coming Russia Bombshells."

It begins: "The confirmation this week that Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid an opposition-research firm for a 'dossier' on Donald Trump is bombshell news. More bombshells are to come."

And ends: "No, this probe of the Democratic Party's Russian dalliance has a long, long way to go. And, let us hope, with revelations too big for even the media to ignore."

That's about as blunt as it gets, in terms of laying out the strategy: To create the narrative that it's the Democratic Party who has a "dalliance" with Russia that can't be ignored.

The entire premise of the piece, however, is a lie.


In a new piece, David Corn lays out the cynical strategy:
When the existence of these memos was first reported (uh, by me, in October 2016), I noted that Steele's investigation was underwritten by a Democratic source. Now the public knows which ones. But as Republicans seize on this development to try to discredit the Steele memos and the whole Trump-Russia scandal, they are also pushing for an investigation into what they claim is the real scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the sale of a uranium company with US operations to a Russian government agency. Fact-checkers have already declared this supposed scandal, which [Donald] Trump has pushed, a phony. But here's where the hypocrisy truly kicks in: the Clinton-uranium story originated with an anti-Clinton book called Clinton Cash, which was produced at a nonprofit supported by right-wing hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer and co-founded by conservative firebrand Stephen Bannon.

So you see what's happening? Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer.
This is exactly what I observed was happening on Monday: "Essentially, the narrative being constructed is that some nefarious dealings with the Russians started while Hillary Clinton was at State, and President Obama knew. That they've accused Trump of collusion, but they are the real traitors, and they need to be put on trial and jailed. ('Lock her up!')"

At the start of the week, that sounded like a wild theory. By the end of the week, it's manifestly obvious that is precisely what's happening.

Malcolm Nance noted the lead today at Trump propaganda outlet Breitbart with a warning:


In February, I recommended this interview with Yale professor Timothy Snyder, who warned "we have at most a year to defend the Republic, perhaps less." Sarah Kendzior and Masha Gessen also warned soon after Trump's election that we had around a year to prevent a full-on authoritarian takeover.

We are bearing down on a year. And we are losing.
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