Backpedaling as People Call Them Liars, CNN Says Latest Russian Hacking Hoax was “Overstated”

Andrew Anglin
Daily Stormer
February 24, 2020

There is really no difference between the so-called “intelligence community” and the mainstream media. The media is a voice for the intelligence agencies, and intelligence officials are regularly hired as commentators. If you listen to CNN or read the New York Times, you are getting the straight narrative that the CIA and the Mossad want to feed the goyim.

So when CNN comes out and publishes a 900 word piece and an accompanying 9 minute video segment (above) backtracking on the Russian hoax, you know that the intelligence agencies themselves have decided to dial it back.

Of course I have to point out that once again, in this “in-depth” piece, they do not say what their evidence for their claims are or even what they are actually talking about.

CNN:

The US intelligence community’s top election security official appears to have overstated the intelligence community’s formal assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 election, omitting important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers earlier this month, three national security officials told CNN.

The official, Shelby Pierson, told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping President Donald Trump get reelected.

The US intelligence community has assessed that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election and has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with. But the US does not have evidence that Russia’s interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, the officials said.

“The intelligence doesn’t say that,” one senior national security official told CNN. “A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker.”

Pierson’s characterization of Russian interference led to pointed questions from lawmakers, which officials said caused Pierson to overstep and assert that Russia has a preference for Trump to be reelected.

One intelligence official said that Pierson’s characterization of the intelligence was “misleading” and a national security official said Pierson failed to provide the “nuance” needed to accurately convey the US intelligence conclusions.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where Pierson is a senior official, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Trump has been periodically briefed on Russian interference in the 2020 election, but was upset when he learned of Pierson’s characterization of the intelligence in part because intelligence officials had not characterized the interference as explicitly pro-Trump. One national security official said Russia’s only clear aim, as of now, is to sow discord in the United States.

Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the aim of helping Trump get elected and damaging then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the intelligence community concluded, writing in its post-election assessment that “Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” And while it is not inconceivable that Russia is once again looking to boost Trump’s candidacy, three national security officials said the US intelligence community does not yet have the evidence to make that assessment.

Since becoming President, Trump has consistently questioned that intelligence assessment, including during a news conference alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. And many of Trump’s foreign policies have benefited Russia, from his abrupt pullout of US troops from northern Syria to the discord he has sown with America’s closest European allies. And he has previously expressed a reluctance to impose severe sanctions on Russia.

Those facts, the US assessment that Russia views Trump as someone they can work with and the separate assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 elections may have led Pierson to connect the dots.

…

One source familiar with the matter said Pierson was merely providing her view of the intelligence as she faced a series of questions from lawmakers trying to pin her down on whether the intelligence showed a Russian preference for Trump.

It’s the type of situation intelligence briefers are prepped to avoid, the source said, in part so as not to wade into partisan controversy. The source said the answer she provided has been misconstrued because it lacked context and nuance.

The brouhaha over the intelligence briefing led national security adviser Robert O’Brien to flatly deny the existence of an intelligence assessment regarding Russian interference aimed at helping Trump. But O’Brien did not explain that the US has also assessed that the Kremlin views Trump as a leader they can work with.

“Well, there’s no briefing that I’ve received, that the President has received, that says that President Putin is doing anything to try and influence the elections in favor of President Trump. We just haven’t seen that intelligence. If it’s out there, I haven’t seen it. I’d be surprised if I haven’t seen it. The leaders of our — the IC have not seen it,” O’Brien said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

But while O’Brien denied that assessment, he was quick to seize on reports that Russia is interfering in the election to help Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries — and mischaracterized the reports to suggest Russia wants Sanders to be President.

“There are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president. That’s no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow,” O’Brien told ABC News, parroting a line Trump used during a campaign rally on Friday.

While intelligence agencies warned Sanders that Russia is interfering to boost him in the Democratic primaries, they have not assessed that Russia wants Sanders to win the general election.

At least they do state that they believe Russia’s goal is to get a president they can work with. That is more than they usually say. Usually, they communicate that Vladimir Putin is a Joker-type figure who is simply trying to spread chaos out of mischievous malice.

But they do not say what we are talking about. No one knows what we are talking about.

How are they trying to help Trump and Sanders?

What is the activity?

It is intolerable that anyone would tolerate this talk of Russians as if they are wizards engaged in spell-casting.

If they are claiming that Putin is an evil wizard casting spells, they need to come out and say that.

If they’re simply saying that Russia is posting on the internet in support of Trump and Sanders, then they need to explain why it is that the government of Israel is allowed to spend millions of dollars on television ads attacking Bernie Sanders.

Here’s one of the ads from the Israeli government running on American television:

Is that “foreign interference”?

They are talking about this Russia thing all day, every day, and we who are forced to listen to it have a right to know what the hell they are talking about.

If the mysterious “influence” is promoting Trump and Sanders on the internet, then we need to know what the difference is between Russia and Israel.

Furthermore, we need to see some kind of evidence for these claims. Because even though I am unable to understand how it would be illegal for Russia to promote Trump or Sanders on the internet, or why it would even be considered a problem, I also don’t even believe it is happening at all.

Why should I believe it?

Because CNN told me to believe it?

CNN told me Donald Trump was involved in a conspiracy with Russia to “hack” the 2016 election. They told me that for 3 years, then it turned out it was a complete hoax. CNN has told me a lot of things, in fact, which did not turn out to be true. Sorry, I am simply unwilling to accept the idea that CNN should be treated as the voice of God, and I want to see evidence for these claims.

But like I say: right now, I don’t even know what the claims are.

The Backpedal

Basically, I think they said all of this stuff about Bernie Sanders being a Russian and realized they’re putting themselves in a position where people are simply going to stop tolerating this “Russian meddling” dopey claptrap.

Honestly, I am truly thunderstruck that they continue to push this narrative, which isn’t really even a narrative at all, but just a baffling superstition.

They say “Russia meddling,” but they do not say:

1. Why Russia is meddling
2. What Russia is doing
3. What the evidence of this unspecified action or series of actions is

I have compared it to blaming evil spirits for events, but it is in fact far beyond that, as when in a previous age people would accuse evil spirits of things, they would at least say what their goal was (to destroy Christian men and Christian society), and would explain what they were doing (usually possessing women to cause them to engage in illicit sexual activity, but also cannibalism, ritual human sacrifice, seeing the future, etc.). Obviously they couldn’t provide evidence for supernatural occurrences, and that is the primary criticism of the practice of accusing people of witchcraft. But at least they outlined the details of their claims, which is a lot more than I can say for the CIA and CNN with their Russia gibberish.

When they start blaming Russia for people supporting Bernie Sanders, you get to the point where more people will start asking “what are we actually even talking about here?” and they clearly do not have an answer to that question. Once people start asking the question and they fail to produce any answers, and instead just start accusing everyone who asks about it of being Russian, the whole thing is going to fall apart.

Related: Russian Hackers are “Swaying Public Opinion Against US Government Policy,” US Government Says

It’s going to fall apart either way eventually, but they want to use this hoax to completely censor all dissent on the internet, so they can’t let it fall apart too soon.