Sigh. Bernie again gets attacked for actions of people he has no control of and no connection to.

[DanTex]

It's getting beyond ludicrous by now. First the "Bernie Bros" and now Russia.

Nobody has any clue what Russia is really up to. A pretty good guess is that they figured doing this would create more discord within the Democratic Party, with accusations of being foreign trolls flying around. And, judging by Twitter, it just might be working. Which is disappointing.

But whatever Russia is scheming, I can assure you it has nothing to do with healthcare or climate or education or any of the other reasons Bernie has millions of supporters and is leading in the polls.

[Autumn]

1. We just gotta laugh at it.

[ehrnst]

31. Yes, like we "laughed" at Trump getting upset that congress was told about Russian

interference without going through him....

Just hysterical.

[TomCADem]

54. White House aide says 'absurd' to link mosque shooter, Trump

I have to say, disavowing responsibility sounds pretty familiar...

https://apnews.com/93227da77e684db69d6085d10ce46325

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official said Sunday that President Donald Trump “is not a white supremacist” and attempts to tie him to the alleged New Zealand mosque shooter are “absurd.”

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, described the New Zealand shooter as a “disturbed individual” and “evil person” and said it was unfair to cast the 28-year-old Australian “as a supporter of Donald Trump any more than it is to look at his, sort of his eco-terrorist passages in that manifesto and align him with Nancy Pelosi or Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.”

Pelosi, a California Democrat, is the House speaker. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is a freshman and major proponent of a plan, named the Green New Deal, for tackling climate change.

“This was a disturbed individual, an evil person, and to try and tie him to an American politician from either party probably ignores some of the deeper, difficulties that this sort of activity exposes,” Mulvaney said.

[guillaumeb]

2. Putin is waging asymetric warfare.

Divide and weaken.

[Eyeball_Kid]

3. Putin: Send provocateurs to events, cause mayhem,

blame Sanders.

Easy pickins

[ehrnst]

32. Why would they try to make Sanders look bad if they are supporting him?

Makes no sense.

[guillaumeb]

51. Putin is not suppprtoing Sanders,

he is trying to cause dissension and division.

[DemocracyMouse]

52. They aren't supporting Sanders. They are baiting Democrats.

They knew, correctly, that Dems would get their panties in a twist over a headline like "Russians spreading memes supporting Sanders." Well guess what, the Russians have also tossed out memes supporting Black Lives Matter and other groups. It sows discord. We all read about these tactics three years ago.

[ehrnst]

88. Actually, the briefing stated that they were supporting Sanders.

Even if that makes you sad, and gets your panties in a twist, it's still a fact.

I do admire the self confidence to know what the Russians are thinking in terms of strategy. Perhaps you should contact our intelligence agencies to let them know.

[apcalc]

5. Exactly, see my post #4.

[apcalc]

4. Of course we know what Russia is up to.

Create division, discord , chaos, depress the vote.

Trump attacks Dems from the right. Sanders is far left ( according to pundits).

What better forces to pit against each other?

The propaganda war is on!!!

[DemocracyMouse]

55. Sanders is a traditional Democrat according to his policies.

Europeans consider him right of center.

New Deal Democrats are the TRADITION that Reagan so easily wipes clean from this TV addled nation.

Honestly America, where's your cahones???

[Woodycall]

69. Couldn't have said it better...

[DemocracyMouse]

70. Thank you 😊 🙏🏼 spread the logic!

[JudyM]

73. Folks here so lose sight of this.

[apcalc]

75. You may think so. The punditry and Dem establishment here do not think so.

Also, in Europe?
Is he running in Europe? Then let the Europeans elect him.

[OnDoutside]

77. Lol, that's not true.

Show me the evidence where "Europeans consider him right of center" ? I'm IN Europe, I have never heard, read or saw anyone consider him anything other than an old school Socialist or even Trotskyist.

Ps A traditional Democrat wouldn't continue to refuse to join the Democratic Party.

[d_b]

6. A metoo smear is next

If that doesn't work...

[ehrnst]

34. That sounds so much like what my RW relatives said

about the revelations that Russia was backing Trump in 2020.

And like I told them... if Russia wants to help Trump, they won't be trying to smear him. It makes no sense...

[hurple]

53. Also

Trump already has 25+ "metoo smears"

Wait, excuse me... i meant sexual assault victims.

[DemocracyMouse]

58. Confusing and irritating Anericans suppresses the vote, which helps Trump

[ehrnst]

83. If they are, as we learned, trying to help Sanders become the nominee

They would not be trying to suppress the vote in the Primary.

It would be contrary to helping Sanders, who needs every single supporter to vote to stay in the race.

[boston bean]

7. He had control to let his supporters and All Americans know

Russia was trying to manipulate the election in his favor.

[SamKnause]

15. Was he allowed to discuss what happened in the security briefing ???

[boston bean]

16. Yes.

[SamKnause]

18. How do you know this ???

[ChubbyStar]

29. You were there at the security briefing?

Holy cow, please tell us all you know.

[Autumn]

82. Did Democratic leadership know about it? if so why have they been silent?

[sheshe2]

20. We have know about it since the Mueller report.

He has been free to talk about it, yet has not.

[SamKnause]

21. The Mueller report was about 2016 elections.

Was he allowed to discuss what he learned about the 2020 elections ???

[sheshe2]

22. Well now he is.

If there was an order he would not have done so now.

NO COMMENT!

[SamKnause]

23. He commented after it was published in the newspapers.

It was a classified briefing.

I want to know if he was allowed to discuss it before it was public knowledge.

[sheshe2]

24. Not sure it would have been classified.

It was in the Mueller report. Same shit, different year. He never addressed it then, blamed it on Hill.

[SamKnause]

37. Congressman Eric Swalwell stated on Rachel's show it was a classified.

He stated he couldn't discuss what happened.

He is coming up next on Lawrence O'Donnell.

[ehrnst]

42. Bernie didn't mention that it was classified... he wasn't upset with WAPO for leaking classified

info, he was accusing them of trying to "harm his campaign."

[sheshe2]

44. Hmmmm.

Interesting. Willing to comment on what say was/or was not classified because it would "harm his campaign."

Hmmm. Ummm Hmmm. Hmm.

[SamKnause]

45. After watching Lawrence, Swalwell's briefing was classified.

Bernie was notified by the intelligence agencies.

I don't know if he was told not to discuss it.

I hope someone asks him.

Swalwell and Lawrence said Bernie was put in an impossible situation,

and the blame is solely on Trump.

Take it for what it is worth.

It was an excellent segment.

A 2 minute clip of Limbaugh.

Swalwell made a joke.

Said if he knew he had to listen to Rush he wouldn't have come on the show.

Lawrence laughed.

Rush's conclusion is the intelligence agencies set up Bush regarding WMD in Iraq.

We all know that is a lie, but in Trump and Rush land it is the gospel truth.

[ehrnst]

38. He said that he "didn't" talk about it, not that he was prohibited from talking about it.

And his outrage at WAPO wasn't that classified information was revealed, but that he felt they were trying to damage his campaign by reporting on a threat to the electoral process by Russian interference in the Democratic Primary.

I also have not heard anyone from national security say that it was a leak of classified information, and they would be investigating it.

Have you?

[ehrnst]

36. In his statement, he didn't say that he wasn't allowed, just that he 'didn't'.

[bpositive]

8. You can't control

What others do to you but you can control how and when you react to it. He missed and opportunity to come off as a strong leader now he is forced to react. Sometimes you just have to admit you or your candidate screwed up. I hope he can recover but it will be hard.

[Squinch]

9. .

He had no control over it AT ALL!!!1!. Except for the past month. He did have control over it for the past month.

But other than that, NO CONTROL AT ALL!!!1!

[sheshe2]

10. Eyes. nt

[Desert grandma]

11. I do wish you were right.

I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary. I will not vote for him now. It is clear to me that Bernie supporters now are focused on policies they want and NOT on the candidate Trump fears most. This is not a normal election. If Bernie gets the nomination, I will vote for him, knowing he will lose and cost us down ballet races. How do we know this? Because Republicans and the Russian trolls are supporting Sanders. Republicans are already thinking they have a good chance to take the House back if Bernie is nominated, because they know he will lose. Did we hear of Russian interference to help any other candidates besides Trump or Sanders??? The silence speaks for itself.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. +100x

Right on the money!

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Skewing the elections is what's going on here

Dictators want Trump to stamp out democracy because it's a threat to them. Bernie is a pawn, and if unwitting he should have known or suspected. He is a socialist after all. I don't think he was witting, or willing. But everything needs to be looked at now, lest we make a flawed choice that is destined to fail. Trump would have an easy victory with Russian help and a damaged Democratic opponent. Our democracy is under attack again, our sovereignty being violated. If we don't save our democracy now, it will be 140 years before it resurfaces.

[Me.]

14. What He Could've Done

Is talked about it/given an interview. Transparency would've been refreshing.

[Cal Carpenter]

17. Also, we knew Russia interfered in 2016 to help Trump, and that he's done nothing about it

Social media corporations have done nothing about it. It has been talked about and alluded to here on DU regularly.

It's no surprise that it is still happening.

[Squinch]

33. And they also helped BS against Hilary in 2016. Lest we forget.

[Cal Carpenter]

41. I'm not re-fighting 2016

But i do wonder how casting doubt on the credibility of Bernie `s support is somehow helping him.

Not to mention what it is doing to the legitimacy of our democracy in general.

It's FUD across the board.

[Squinch]

46. They didn't cast doubt on the credibility of his support. They got caught

inflating his support.

[Cal Carpenter]

48. ..

I'm not going down this rabbit hole with you.

If you are discussing this in good faith, I ask you to read this link. If not, I'm done here.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287556334

[Squinch]

49. Lol! "I'm not going to discuss this with you unless you agree with

my self serving opinion and this illogical Wired article that I liked."

The russians want the easiest candidate to beat. That's why they are inflating Bernie. That's why they inflated bernie in 2016.

And I have no problem with you going down that rabbit hole all by yourself. Bye.

[Bear Creek]

56. Not really

They got democrats to fight. Bernie bros bs which were more likely Russian bots..

[Squinch]

59. Suuuure they were.

[Bear Creek]

64. Tired

Of the Bernie smears. Actually this has been going on for a while and when they had the whitehouse and congress didn't do anything about it. They acted like it was some made up conspiracy theory. Not we have hacked elections and dark money.

[Squinch]

65. Have you seen his tweet? I'm tired of Bernie smearing us too.

[Bear Creek]

68. The DNC slanted the 2016 election.

The democratic party needs fixed. They need to clean house and get rid of the republicans who run as democrats. Bernie's ideas are pretty much FDR's and anyone here doesn't like FDR they probably should not claim to be a democrat. Instead of Bernie bros it really is Biden Bot bros.

[uponit7771]

19. Why didn't Sanders denounce outside involvement in US elections when he found out?

[ehrnst]

27. This OP is trying to direct attention away from that little detail...

[uponit7771]

28. It looks like all of them are ... this night is very strange. I was getting sql response in post ...

... request I have no doubt we're being worked tonight.

[Skittles]

62. such behavior with Trump fans is considered cultish

yup

[ehrnst]

25. He had "no control" over refusing to tell the US that the Democratic primaries were under direct

attack by Russia?

And he had no control over his own words when he accused WAPO of trying to damage his campaign when they reported on it?

As I recall Trump got angry when congress was told about Russian attempts to interfere with our election without going through him first.

Did Trump 'have no control" as well?

You're frantic to try to make this about something - anything - other than Bernie's own inaction and silence that he had control over, because that is what people are talking about, not what Russia is doing specifically.

I suppose this is one of many OPs you will author trying to redirect the conversation away from some very inconvenient and painful truths.

[uponit7771]

30. +1, Sanders could've denounced outside involvement in US elections second he found out about help

[cherryinpa]

26. OK

I agree this is outside of Bernie’s control and the Russians are just fermenting trouble.

But why doesn’t Bernie come out and make a statement to clear this up.

The silence is deafening.

[Happy Hoosier]

35. Bernie handled his tarmac interview okay... until...

He just couldn’t let it be. He had to suggest the Post published this today to hurt him. His first instinct is about how the story affects him, not the harm this interference is doing America.

[ehrnst]

40. Yep. That showed his priorities. (nt)

[democratisphere]

39. Don't make excuses.

BS was informed at least a month ago.

[ehrnst]

43. +1000.

[Garrett78]

47. Russia is all about causing chaos, confusion and infighting. They don't care how they do it.

So long as it works. They'll throw any number of things against the wall in hopes that at least some of it sticks.

[Squinch]

50. Russia is all about keeping Donald Trump as President if the USA.

[quakerboy]

81. That would be plan A

Since they have him in hock.

But nearly as good is literally any president, as weakened as possible and our nation as divided and disabled as possible.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

57. Same old same old.

[Skittles]

60. poor Bernie

[NurseJackie]

66. Yep. There's no excuse for his secrecy.

None.

[Skittles]

67. ooh I forgot to add this

[Bonobo]

61. I've been on DU for close to 20 years.

And I NEVER saw it reach the levels of nuttiness I see here now.

[democrank]

71. You beat me to it.

I’ve tried to steer clear of this vicious mess, but it has gone far beyond making a mountain out of a mole hill. All you have to do is read this thread to see how successful Putin’s operatives have been in sewing chaos. It was easy, breezy.

Perhaps the Anti-Bernie Unit could convince the Democratic Party establishment to begin a national campaign to reject any and all support from Bernie voters. Tell the Bernie folks to go somewhere else. Tell them they won’t be allowed to mingle with The Pure Democrats. Tell them we don’t want them around. They’re racists, Communists, socialists, freeloaders. They all voted against Hillary when they were supposed to help her. They’re ruining our precious party. They all want free stuff. Many are too lazy to vote, especially the young ones. Sanders is an Independent, if you can imagine such an awful thing. Anyone who isn’t a Democrat is unAmerican. Sanders is unAmerican.

The intelligence briefing Sanders recently had could not possibly have been classified. No way, I tell you. Sanders didn’t announce what he learned because he had his honeymoon in Moscow. That says it all right there. Moscow Bernie, just like Moscow Mitch, only worse.

[Bonobo]

72. Hilarious reply. Thanks for the needed laugh.

[JudyM]

74. Add an asterisk next to his name on the ballot suggesting they think real hard before choosing him.

[CrawlingChaos]

80. You can say that again

[SidDithers]

85. JFC...

Read your own posts from 2015.



Sid

[TomSlick]

63. I have seen no suggestion that Sanders is somehow implicated in Russia's support.

The question is why are the Russians supporting him. The obvious explanation would seem to be that the Russians believe a Sanders nomination helps Trump's reelection.

[scipan]

89. But why?

Maybe they think a Sanders nomination will divide the Dem party, and a lot of us will stay home.

[TomSlick]

90. I have three theories:

(1) Russian intelligence may have concluded that a Sanders nomination would divide the Democrats.

(2) It may be the Russians have concluded a Sanders presidency would be largely ineffective, leaving Russia unchecked on the international stage. Trump is a friend of Russia. If the Russians can't have their friend in office, their second best choice is a cipher.

(3) It may just be the Russians were seeking only to cause chaos by creating doubts about the election process.

Whatever the reason, it is concerning. If the bad guys are for you, the good guys should be against you.

[scipan]

91. All good theories.

I don't necessarily agree but they are thoughtful.
For #2 (cipher), I can see him being blocked, but Bernie will continue to go out and try to get people involved. Seems like that's about the last thing the Russians want.
I disagree with your last point strongly. The next worst thing to falling for Russian propaganda would be to do the opposite of what they seem to want for contrarian's sake. We should not let them affect our reasoning at all when we decide who to back.

[radical noodle]

76. I think he played this wrong

When his statement first came out about Russian support, everyone was praising him and saying it was just what the president should also say. I'm not a fan but even I thought he said the right thing.

Then he made that god-awful tweet and completely wiped out any goodwill he might have gained and made an enemy of a lot of Democrats around the country. Obviously, the Russians didn't make that tweet for him. What the hell was he thinking?

[TexasTowelie]

78. .

[CrawlingChaos]

79. Don't be discouraged DanTex!

Outside of this forum the attacks are not sticking with MOST reasonable people. Momentum is building and building... we are going to WIN!!

[SidDithers]

84. Poor Bernie. He's the real victim here...nt

Sid

[yaesu]

86. When anyone attacks Bernie over this they are helping putin & tRumps cyber warfare, they are doing

serious damage to the party & they are giving tRump a much better chance at 4 more years.

[ehrnst]

87. Acknowledging the facts is not "attacking."(nt)