Today is one of those moments in the cultural war, because the New York Times published a bombshell article about an intelligence report which confirms what you basically already know or certainly suspected: 1.
Rudy Giuliani was one of the ringleaders of not only the Ukraine fiasco, but a key player in Russian election interference, before he went on to infamy with his ludicrous Strikeforce Rudy group; 2. all of the nonsense about the Chinese being in cahoots with the Democrats, Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption and widespread voter fraud was just that, nonsense.
What this signals is a time of major regrouping and political spin. If there’s one thing you can depend upon right now, it’s that there’s a lot of hysterical meetings taking place over at Fox News about how to come back from this. Prior to this report, a lot of this information only existed as innuendo, now it’s been fleshed out and clearly refuted. And there’s new data showing what a world wide free for all the 2020 election really was.
During the 2020 campaign, intelligence officials outlined how Russia was spreading damaging information about Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, in an attempt to boost Mr. Trump’s re-election chances. It also outlined efforts by Iran in the final days before the election to aid Mr. Biden by spreading letters falsely purporting to be from the far-right group the Proud Boys.
Allegations of election interference have been some of the most politically divisive in recent years. The intelligence report is akin to an early 2017 declassified assessment that laid out the conclusions about Russia’s interference in Donald J. Trump’s electoral victory, further entrenched the partisan debate over Mr. Trump’s relationship with Moscow and cemented his enmity toward intelligence and law enforcement officials.
With Mr. Trump out of office and the new report’s conclusions largely telegraphed in public releases during the election, it was not expected to prompt as much partisan fury. But elements of it are likely to be the subject of political fights.
It’s going to get drop dead ugly from here on out. The article goes on to talk about John Ratcliffe, whose qualifications as Trump’s lap dog and nothing else got him the job he held in national intelligence. China is the bad guy is Ratcliffe’s stance and it is the prevailing right-wing narrative, even to the extent of the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was conceived in a Wuhan lab and released on purpose. So expect commentary on Chinese CT to feature prominently in the days to come, in order to deflect from emphasis on the Russian intervention.
And speaking of Russia, there is where Rudy Giuliani fits right in.
The report did not name those people but seemed to be a reference to the work of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family involving Ukraine.
“Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin’s interests worked to affect U.S. public perceptions in a consistent manner,” the report said.
And it’s more nails in the coffin, for not only Rudy, but Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and the rest of the sorry squad who sought to paint the late Hugo Chavez and voting machine companies as perpetrators of a non existent plot.
A companion report by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security also rejected false allegations promoted by Mr. Trump’s allies in the weeks after the election that Venezuela or other foreign countries defrauded the election.
The reports, compiled by career officials, amounted to a repudiation of Mr. Trump, his allies and some of his top administration officials. They categorically dismissed allegations of foreign-fed voter fraud, cast doubt on Republican accusations of Chinese intervention on behalf of Democrats and undermined the allegations that Mr. Trump and his allies spread about the Biden family’s work in Ukraine.
Those are the broad brush strokes. The cable news shows are hopping with pundits right now and the blow back is only just beginning. The only given is that now right-wing media has to strike back and that should be something. I wonder if Fox News will lift its moratorium on Rudy Giuliani? I don’t think they’re that stupid but if they are, it could be some incredible comic relief. Look for Rudy to show up drunk, fly open, and outdo his performance at Four Seasons Landscaping.