Despite Trump's Google Conspiracy, Mueller Report Shows Russia Helped Bernie & Trump

[TomCADem]

While Trump and Bernie continue to campaign by attacking the legitimacy of the U.S. elections, the actual evidence shows that Russia helped both Bernie and Trump. Given this Mueller report, perhaps that is the goal of Trump and Bernie in continuing to push conspiracy theories about the media and the electoral process as part of their 2020 campaigns. It is as if they have the same playbook:

Trump's outrageous claims of voter fraud have a clear goal: Refusing to accept defeat in 2020:
https://www.salon.com/2019/08/20/trumps-outrageous-claims-of-voter-fraud-are-about-one-thing-invalidating-the-2020-election/

NY Mag (June 2019): Sanders Claims 2016 Primary Was Rigged, Won’t Commit to Supporting Winner

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/bernie-sanders-2016-rigged-wont-pledge-support-winner.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/17/indictment-russians-also-tried-help-bernie-sanders-jill-stein-presidential-campaigns/348051002/

WASHINGTON – It turns out Donald Trump wasn’t the only candidate the Russians allegedly tried to help during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A 37-page indictment resulting from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation shows that Russian nationals and businesses also worked to boost the campaigns of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Green party nominee Jill Stein in an effort to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Russians “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump,” according to the indictment, which was issued Friday.

The document, which spells out in detail how the Russians worked to support Trump’s campaign, alleges that on or about Feb. 10, 2016, the Russians internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted on social media accounts.

[abqtommy]

1. The Russian strategy was to deny Hillary any chance of winning

and they were successful as far as the EC was concerned. But they couldn't totally corrupt the popular vote. Remember that.

[Cha]

4. No one is forgetting Hillary won the popular

except trump and the stooges.

[Hortensis]

10. Absolutely. America's voters elected Hillary president.

This time we're going to have to outvote the Republican candidate by so much that even Russia, China, Iran, our own kleptocrats, etc., can't steal enough to overset it.

[wasupaloopa]

2. I haven't heard any evidence that Bernie knew about it.

[pnwmom]

3. Bernie Sanders: "We Knew What We Knew, When We Knew It'

https://www.vpr.org/post/sen-bernie-sanders-russia-we-knew-what-we-knew-when-we-knew-it#stream/0

Sanders alluded to being aware something was going on even during the primary campaign, but wasn't clear about exactly when his campaign began to suspect what turned out to be alleged interference by Russians in the 2016 campaign.

"In April and May," Sanders said Wednesday, "it appeared that there were lots of strange things happening attacking Hillary Clinton."

During the interview, Lindholm asked Sanders why he did not go to his supporters and warn them about the suspicious activity.

In response, Sanders said a campaign staffer named John Mattes noticed in late September 2016, hundreds of people popping up on pro-Sanders Facebook pages to disparage then-Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

[TomCADem]

6. If (When) Another Democratic Candidate Gets Hacked, Will Bernie...

... condemn the hack and refuse to try to leverage it into poutrage regarding criticism decorated toward him and his campaign?

Or, will Bernie's campaign act like it is the true victim and rely on the hacked emails to argue that the primaries are rigged and the news is all fake?

Finally, why was Bernie one of the votes against Russian sanctions based on elections interference? Bernie is already one of the few folks who voted against the Magnistsky Act, but then he votes against sanctioning Russia for election interference that helped his campaign.

Bernie often raises human rights abuses to attack China, but when it comes to Russia, Bernie has had a curious blind spot over the years. Bernie Sanders only one member of Congress who voted against both the Magnitsky Act and Russia Sanctions for 2016 election interference. Yet, during the debates, Bernie has gotten a free pass on his bromance with Russia over the years.

[comradebillyboy]

8. Bernie will do what he did the last time.

[TomCADem]

12. Stand In Solidarity With His Rival and Condemn The Hack...

...and refuse to act like a victim just because the hacked emails show rival campaign workers saying mean things about him?

Well, we could only hope!

[Rhiannon12866]

5. One of their aims was to cause dissension between the Hillary and Bernie campaigns

And they succeeded among the supporters, if not the candidates.

[MrsCoffee]

7. Bernie blamed Hillary for not stopping the Russians.

So did Trump.

Bernie is as divisive as they come.

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-trump-hillary-clinton-816239

[comradebillyboy]

9. Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference

Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference

Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blamed Hillary Clinton for not doing more to stop the Russian attack on the last presidential election. Then his 2016 campaign manager, in an interview with POLITICO, said he’s seen no evidence to support special counsel Robert Mueller's assertion in an indictment last week that the Russian operation had backed Sanders' campaign.

The remarks showed Sanders, running for a third term and currently considered a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, deeply defensive in response to questions posed to him about what was laid out in the indictment. He attempted to thread a response that blasts Donald Trump for refusing to acknowledge that Russians helped his campaign — but then holds himself harmless for a nearly identical denial.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/21/bernie-sanders-trump-russia-interference-420528

[TomCADem]

13. That is why the Russians helped him and Trump...

...they both question the legitimacy of U.S. elections and repeatedly attack the media as an enemy.

[MrsCoffee]

16. Agreed.

And it really doesn’t help anyone but Trump in the long run.

[TomCADem]

15. Now Russian Trolls Can Boost Tulsi Gabbard's Attacks...

...on everyone but Bernie to create some distance between Bernie and the Russians.

[thesquanderer]

11. NYMag headline is misleading, Sanders WILL support the primary winner.

He signed a pledge to that effect.

The NYMag piece said he would not commit to dropping out to support someone else before the convention. I'm not aware that anyone else said they would do that, either. After the convention, when there is officially a nominee, Sanders will support that nominee.

The article's author, Jonathan Chait, has always been anti-Sanders, so the spin there (and not just about that) is not surprising.

[Scurrilous]

14. ...