Russia

Even with many of their top personalities on vacation Friday, it didn’t slow down MSNBC’s smearing of President-Elect Donald Trump. Fill in host Katy Tur was in an admitted state of confusion on MSNBC Live, because of perceived conflicts with Trump’s approach to dealing with Russia. “You know, I've got to say, I got a bit of whiplash here. I'm not quite sure what's going on. Mark, can you break…

Appearing as a guest on Wednesday’s Hardball, The Root political editor Jason Johnson told his fellow MSNBC panelists that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the biggest winner of 2016 because he succeeded where Mikhail Gorbachev and the late Fidel Castro couldn’t in “[taking] over the United States” via a “coup” through “Manchurian candidate” Donald Trump. 

The affinity of some American conservatives for Vladimir Putin was a minor phenomenon well before Donald Trump ran for president, and for obvious reasons it’s still grist for the mill of punditry. Liberal blogger and columnist Waldman delved into the topic in a Monday piece for The American Prospect. Waldman mused that maybe Republicans “are just now realizing that Putin is a leader after their…

On Sunday, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd displayed the ability for some on the left to blame Republicans for anything. During a discussion of the recent hackings from Russia that were revealed months before the presidential election, Todd asked former Bush and Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates if Republican critics of President Obama actually provoked the hackings by accusing Obama of…

Sunday’s New York Times may as well have been the sore loser edition, still obsessed with conjuring up links, no matter how tenuous, between Donald Trump and Russia, as shown in the off-lead story by Mike McIntire, “How Putin Fan Peddled Trump From Overseas – ‘Patriot’ Site Promoted Hoaxes to Americans.” Two other stories complained of Trump's "radical" and "hard-line" staff picks.

Rampant speculation abounded on Thursday’s CBS This Morning. Co-host Charlie Rose on Thursday channeled Watergate with a question about Russian hacking.  Talking to John Heilemann of Bloomberg Politics, Rose wondered, “What did Donald [Trump] know and when did he know it?” This, of course, was meant to echo Senator Howard Baker’s 1973 question during the Watergate hearings: “What did the…

After its favored candidate lost the presidential election in shocking fashion, the New York Times is suddenly wide awake to the threat posed by Russia. It devoted 8,000 words and Wednesday’s front page to “Hacking The Democrats – How Russia Honed its Cyberpower and Trained It on an American Election.” The accompanying photo of the filing cabinet broken into during Watergate made it clear the…

It appeared that NBC sharpened its claws in preparation for NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, as the network sent Richard Engel to Russia. The reporter was there to find dirt on President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. “I'm Richard Engel in Moscow, where the Kremlin couldn't be happier with the way Trump's cabinet is shaping up, especially with Rex…

The Hamilton electors, whatever their number, are being cheered on by Hamilton bloggers, one of whom is Esquire’s Pierce. In a Saturday post, Pierce argued that in the country the Founding Fathers envisioned, the Electoral College would vote down a Donald Trump presidency. Pierce wrote, “Let us assume for a moment that our constitutional institutions are as strong and functional as they are…

Though the press apparently wants everyone to forget about it, the fact is that barely two weeks ago, over Thanksgiving weekend, the Obama administration told the world, apparently only through the New York Times, its designated mouthpiece, that "we stand behind our (nation's) election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people." The statement was "issued" to the Times on…

Appearing as a panel member on Monday's New Day, CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd reacted angrily to video of the RNC's Sean Spicer dismissing reports that CIA members believe the Russian government hacked the DNC for the purpose of helping Donald Trump get elected, as the CNN analyst declared that he would like to "jump through the TV" and take him "behind the shed." He then derided the…

Sunday afternoon, Eric Shawn of Fox News interviewed former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. By his reactions to what Bolton said near the interview's beginning, Shawn misunderstood the meaning of "false flag operation," apparently believing that every such effort has to be originated by the government leveling a charge of nefarious behavior against another, in this case the U.S. against…

Well, that didn't take long. The morning after the Washington Post's Friday evening story that a "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House," a "deeply disturbed" Bob Baer, appearing on CNN Newsroom, when questioned as to whether "we should have another election," said that if it's true, "I don’t see any other way than to vote again."

On Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, during a discussion of the possibility that the Russian government actively tried to thwart Hillary Clinton from getting elected, host Brian Stelter at one point wondered if there was a "national emergency" in Donald Trump's election: "We're talking about a candidate who's lost in a historic way in terms of the popular vote but clearly won in the Electoral…