The “Russia bounty” story that fed several news cycles last year and provided Democrats with yet another bogus talking point during campaign season has imploded.
Waiting for the @DrewHolden360 thread on coverage of the bounty story last year. pic.twitter.com/OZPwQSHV6N
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) April 15, 2021
The wait is over! Earlier Richard Grenell cited a few examples of how “journalists” and others spread this particular fake news, and now it’s Drew Holden’s turn:
This one is a looooong list. https://t.co/9agPDmcVMX
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 16, 2021
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Today the “Russian bounties” story – where Russia was supposedly paying to have US soldiers killed – quietly imploded.
For the last year, Dems, the media & others have pushed this conspiracy theory endlessly.
If you think that’s exaggerative, have a look⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
This shouldn’t be amazing, considering the predictability of the media these days, but it still is. The memo went out, and they ran with it:
The worst offender was @nytimes, who broke the original story and went on to convince the families of soldiers who had been KIA that perhaps the Russians were to blame and President Trump didn’t care.
Will we get a follow up? Will the families? pic.twitter.com/FTEkqRaPTn
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But they were far from alone. @CNN pushed the conspiracy theory just as frequently as anyone did.
You’ll notice that, while some of the stories note the bounties are “alleged”, eventually CNN dropped that, despite the narrative being disputed (and having since fallen apart). pic.twitter.com/aeXuJlikuc
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@CNN also made a habit of having elected Dems on to suggest a path forward on these unverified allegations, glossing over the fact that they may or may not even be true. Here’s @SenGillibrand and @SenDuckworth. (More on electeds later) pic.twitter.com/CG2ffknKKf
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@brianstelter, I’m asking you earnestly: will you retract this story? Or at least amend it significantly, given the implications of your reporting?
If not, why not? pic.twitter.com/7yoJdreLFw
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@washingtonpost gave Trump Four Pinocchios on a fact check when he said that the intel – which, again, was unverified and has since evaporated – was even disputed.
I mean, cmon! pic.twitter.com/jb7bwswb0H
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But probably the most unhinged in their insistence was @MSNBC. They pushed this conspiracy theory time and time again across their platform as if the allegations were rock solid.
Turns out, they weren’t. @FrankFigliuzzi1, @Lawrence pic.twitter.com/PPJY9NlLAU
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@MSNBC unsurprisingly got their chief Russian propagandist, @maddow/@MaddowBlog involved on this one, too.
You would think that the Russian collusion hoax imploding would chasten her. Apparently not. pic.twitter.com/xJythsKzNr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But Maddow isn’t @MSNBC’s only conspiracy theorist. @JoyAnnReid was one of the most outspoken proponents of the Russian bounties conspiracy theory (these are only a handful of her tweets – she could’ve had a thread to herself). pic.twitter.com/45ATOpjMGU
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
The rush among outlets to go from explosive but unconfirmed reports to gospel truth was contagious.
Here’s just a few stories from @politico: pic.twitter.com/fOnH7u1Fiu
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
I know it isn’t much of the money they get but it’s still jarring to me that @NPR is allocated money from US taxpayers.
Notice particularly in this first one how the story is clearly framed as if the allegations are already beyond dispute. pic.twitter.com/aaOhyiK33S
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
@thedailybeast broke this story – which I’ve linked to at the end of the thread – which is good and important reporting.
They also pushed the original bounties claim, too. pic.twitter.com/VDTv68Vc3i
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But this only scratches the surface. Everyone was running with this story despite all the red flags.
Here’s just a smattering from:@Reuters @AssociatedPress @NBCNews (yikes)@NYDailyNews pic.twitter.com/aUAEVQrT4r
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
And of course the media feeds the Dems, and vice-versa:
And you’ll remember that plenty of politicians got involved in this narrative, too.@JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris made it an important component of their campaign.
How many voters’ minds might this conspiracy theory have changed? pic.twitter.com/zmxGUp1dCY
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
They weren’t alone. Lots of other powerful Democrats got involved. The Senate in particular went into a full court press.
Here’s just a few, from:@SenDuckworth (the loudest critic on this, and worth doubling up on)@SenWarren @SenMarkey @CoryBooker pic.twitter.com/olKnqstc8q
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
And the lower house wasn’t any better. @SpeakerPelosi was probably the worst offender.
In retrospect, it sure looks like Trump was right to call the story – forced out of terrorist detainees – a hoax. pic.twitter.com/F88t8P6sMr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But there were plenty of others in the House. Many of the names won’t shock you. Here’s:@RepSwalwell (go figure)@RepAdamSchiff (double go figure)@tedlieu (quickly becoming a ?favorite) and @sethmoulton (“treasonous behavior”) pic.twitter.com/l0XlWdLvBM
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
But wait, there’s more…
Of course the trolls, grifters, child predators and the rest of the ghouls at @ProjectLincoln were pushing this one hard.
I try to have grace and charity on here. I can’t muster it with the Lincoln Project. pic.twitter.com/nYqw5PF4so
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
Obligatory @kurteichenwald and @SethAbramson mentions (just unhinged stuff here). pic.twitter.com/MK4NHEMqA1
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
It won’t surprise you that the Never Trump crowd were adamant about this story. Here we see @SteveSchmidtSES, @BillKristol, @therickwilson (plus @mollyjongfast, who like Rick has also blocked me) and no thread would be complete without @JRubinBlogger pic.twitter.com/uuBy3Gtnqn
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
All of the internet loudmouths were on this one. I’ve only got so much space and so much patience but here we’ll see:@DanRather @tribelaw (go figure)@KevinMKruse and @Scaramucci (this might be libel?) pic.twitter.com/CN7zibdvri
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
There hasn’t been a more widespread or pernicious conspiracy theory in recent memory than “Russian bounties.” It was always thinly sourced and disputed. Yet it was treated as the gospel truth because Orange Man Bad.
Where are the corrections? Where are the retractions?
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
I don’t think we’ll get any. I don’t think any heads will roll. I don’t think any lessons will be learned.
But you know what I do think? I do think this’ll happen again. And that’s embarrassing.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
In many ways, this story was the Russian Collusion hoax in miniature: Trump is bad, so we’ll believe anything that’s said about him, especially if it involves Russia.
A truly shameful showing from those who are meant to tell the American people the truth.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
Full story is here from @thedailybeast: https://t.co/NsWPLj5SNi
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 15, 2021
For those who have asked, I don’t have anything to sell or subscribe to. But if you can, food banks are in desperate need because of the pandemic, and need your help.
For those in DC, Capital Area Food Bank is a great option. https://t.co/mtSmgEq0Up
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 16, 2021
The national media would have to rent an Alvin-class submarine in order to retrieve its credibility from the depth to which it has sunk.
Amazing thread. Glad to see there are still journalists willing to challenge biased reporting. https://t.co/NGhqLtg9yx
— Carl Gottlieb (@c_cgottlieb) April 16, 2021
Awesome job calling out all the liars in the MSM
— Robert Powell (@RPTexan) April 16, 2021
Pathetic and corrupt. https://t.co/DZLaZjJY9f
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) April 16, 2021
No two words better describe the current state of national media.