I hope that we're able to have this next conversation as adults.
And please watch the entire video, listen to the entire story before commenting.
I'm begging you.
I've actually I hate to admit this, but I've delayed talking about this for a few days
because I know that even bringing it up triggers some people off a cliff into irrationality.
But at this point, I would be doing a disservice if I didn't talk about this.
So I'm going to break it down as simply as I can.
Russia is once again meddling in the election in order to help Donald Trump.
Now, disclaimer, I listen very, very carefully here.
This does not mean Donald Trump is actively participating or coordinating anything with
Vladimir Putin.
This does not mean that Russia is coordinating with Trump.
What this means is that Russia is doing what they do all over the world.
And what they've done for a very long time and what the United States does all over the
world, this is a really important message here.
I'm not alleging and I'm not alleging anything.
It's the intelligence community.
It is not being alleged that Russia is doing anything special right now.
Russia has a long history dating back decades, really like a hundred years of using a series
of tactics, depending on the situation, to exert influence on foreign elections.
Now for everybody, let's go through some of the responses people are going to send me.
What about China and Iran?
I'll talk about China and Iran in two minutes.
So let's wait.
What about the fact that the U.S. also medals in elections?
You're right.
But I'm not done.
Of course, the U.S. medals in elections.
That's not what this story is about.
This is about our election being meddled in.
If you are against Trump.
And you want the will of the people to be heard and for it to be the will of the people
that determines the next president.
Right now we are talking about Russian meddling to help Trump in the next three months.
That's the topic of this story.
It doesn't mean some other thing isn't a valid story.
Americans meddling in Nicaragua decades ago is true.
Interesting and important.
Historically, it's just not what this story is about.
So don't distract with that.
So what do we know?
Russia is pushing their standard disinformation campaigns targeting Joe Biden.
They're spreading disinformation to hurt Joe Biden.
The American intelligence community has been briefing elected of elected officials about
this now for some time.
Russia is working to help Donald Trump by attacking Biden.
And meanwhile, yeah, China and Iran are working to hurt Trump.
This is not just Russia, but you can't deny the Russia piece.
That's the important thing.
Russia prefers Trump.
China and Iran prefer Joe Biden based on everything we know right now.
Doesn't make anybody better or worse.
It's simply what is taking place right now.
The Russian interference is not merely about Trump per say, and it's not even about Trump
specifically.
It's about Russia's bigger plan to destabilize Western democracy.
Anybody who thinks Russia's preferences are specifically about Trump as a person, you're
mostly missing the big picture.
Russia plays a big picture game.
The game is sow discord in Western democracies to make people within those countries and
around the world think, wow, you know, democracy doesn't seem to be working so well in these
countries.
The more that Western democracies lose credibility, the better of Russia looks in comparison.
That's the idea.
Making it a reality is another story.
Now, in terms of their reactions to this, nationally, Democrats and Republicans are
just not the same on many issues.
If you've been watching this program, listening to the podcast, you know that I point out
here's an issue on which there is very little daylight between Democrats and Republicans.
And when that's the case, we talk about it on this issue since 2016.
Democrats have sought time after time to stop and prevent this type of meddling.
Republicans have gotten in the way of trying to stop this type of meddling.
Mitch McConnell has gotten in the way of dealing with this.
Donald Trump has done nothing about it.
So please understand there's not anything conspiratorial here.
Powerful countries try to influence elections around the world.
Assuming you agree that's true, there is no particular reason to doubt Russia having a
preference and that preference being Donald Trump because it's coherent with their geopolitical
strategy dating back four decades.
The U.S. does it.
You're right.
China does it.
Yes, Iran does it.
Absolutely.
And so does Russia.
There's no reason that we should be particularly skeptical of that.
Why would we deny it?
It doesn't make any sense.
The claim, once again, just as a reminder, is not that Trump and Putin are working together
right now.
The claim is from the Intelligence Committee that the U.S. election is just another one.
And Russia is interested in the outcome.
China's interested in the outcome.
Iran is interested in the outcome.
They have different preferences.
Russia's preference is for Trump to win.
And Russia's tactics are likely more sophisticated than those employed by China and Iran because
Russia has been doing this for a very long time.
Don't be defensive in the sense that accepting that doesn't mean you have to accept anything
else.
You don't have to accept anything that goes into speculation.
But there are people that get very defensive when this is brought up and they start talking
about red scares and all sorts of wacky stuff.
It just it's very straightforward.
There's nothing unique here.
Let's identify
it
for what
it is.