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A funny way of “sowing discord”

Published by digby on November 10, 2017

A funny way of “sowing discord”by digby

I am often told that the idea Russia was actively trying to help Donald Trump is really beyond the pale. It’s much more likely that Russia was just “sowing discord” and it just happened to have helped Trump. I’m really skeptical about that at this point:

Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts.

Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America_1st_” and “BatonRougeVoice” on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

Since early this year, the extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in the election has been the subject of both congressional scrutiny and a criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. In particular, those investigations are looking into the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

AP’s analysis illuminates the obvious strategy behind the Russian cyber meddling: swiftly react, distort and distract attention from any negative Trump news.

That story didn’t need any help to “sow discord.” It sowed plenty all by itself. The idea that they were just “meddling” without any care about the outcome is just not credible. They were helping him specifically. And it’s important to understand if they thought they were going to get paid back.

Trump certainly behaves as if he has something to hide. You cannot blame people for their suspicions. Not anymore.

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