“Jill Stein is a useful idiot for Russia. After parroting Kremlin talking points and being propped up by bad actors in 2016 she’s at it again,” DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement to The Bulwark. “Jill Stein won’t become president, but her spoiler candidacy—that both the GOP and Putin have previously shown interest in—can help decide who wins. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
Russia is bad and all, but she’s much more directly a useful idiot for Republicans who are not only more directly focused on directly harming the people Stein’s campaign is targeting, but have a significantly greater ability to actually accomplish it. No one needs to trust the US establishment that Russia is bad, they know Republicans and how they’re bad.
Also, DNC, why are you make this new on The Bulwark? Way to undercut your message.
Well that’s the whole point, Putin’s goal is to destabilize the West, that’s why he backed Trump and Stein in 2016 and 2020, it’s why he backed Brexit in 2016.
Now, for the DNC and Bulwark, there’s a more strongly worded article on democrats.org which is straight from the DNC, unfortunately the DNC doesn’t meet our credibility guidelines for posts. LOL.
https://democrats.org/news/icymi-jill-stein-to-campaign-today-with-alleged-russian-assets/
"Engaging with foreign assets is a pattern for Stein. Previously, the Senate Intelligence Committee investigated links between Stein’s 2016 campaign and Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election, while an indictment brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency had used social media to promote her candidacy. In 2015, Stein attended a gala in support of Russian propaganda television network, RT, where she sat at the head table alongside Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn. Stein has repeatedly parroted Kremlin views and posted a campaign video from Moscow’s Red Square with language “ripped from Putin’s talking points.”
Despite her ties to the Kremlin and Putin, the GOP has still embraced Jill Stein as a spoiler candidate. Donald Trump praised Jill Stein, saying he likes her “very much.” Additionally, the GOP has been helping Stein with ballot access in an attempt to prop up her spoiler candidacy. "
Putin isn’t all that powerful a force in our society. He has limited influence and capability to disrupt operations. The GOP on the other hand has the ability and intention to drastically curtail our freedoms while sacrificing our well-being so rich people can get marginally richer. They’re the ones who can spend billions of dollars running sham efforts to get Stein on the ballot, they’re the ones who can give money to her campaign, and they’re the ones who have the cultural knowledge to run truly dangerous influence operations.
I’m much more worried and angered by a “left” voice allying with the GOP than I am with some idea of foreign influence. The foreigners aren’t the problem. There are plenty of fascists right here at home and no remote ideological excuse for working with them in any fashion regardless of how angry you are with the DNC.
You’re understating the Russian influence:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/russias-2024-election-interference-already-begun-rcna134204
https://apnews.com/article/russian-interference-presidential-election-influencers-trump-999435273dd39edf7468c6aa34fad5dd
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/04/russia-accused-of-trying-to-influence-us-voters-through-online-campaign
Do you really think buying Facebook ads and running upvote farms is a major contributor to the temperature of the country? I’m sorry but I’m just not convinced. I think that the corporations and billionaires that own all of our media outlets are responsible for 99% of disinformation and that Putin’s efforts are a fart in the wind in comparison.
Absolutely. Russia did the same thing in the UK leading up to the Brexit vote because they recognized the value in a weaker European Union.
Top UK Google searches following the vote:
“What is Brexit?”
“What is the EU?”
https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/24/480949383/britains-google-searches-for-what-is-the-eu-spike-after-brexit-vote
They didn’t even know what they were voting on but the propaganda stream got them to vote yes.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1669273/russian-meddling-brexit-referendum-funding-spt
Bulwark has been on a good article blitz recently.
They’re fine, but they were explicitly founded as Never Trump conservatives, which is not the outfit you want to go to when trying to discredit challenges that are nominally based on the Democrats being too conservative.