Is Russia Backing Tulsi in 2020? Up Next on MSNBC Joy Reid

[oasis]

[TruckFump]

1. They are backing her...no doubt. EOM

[oasis]

3. Clint Watts suspects the Russians are going after both Biden and Warren. nt

[TruckFump]

5. The already have MF45 and the headliners in the Party of Trump...

...would not doubt that since they saw how easily MF45 and his party were turned against this country...they then are coming after the good guys.

[oasis]

2. Former FBI analyst, Clint Watts with interesting take on the primary

race and who he believes to be Putin's favorite candidate.

[flamingdem]

6. Can you elaborate?

Missed it.

[oasis]

7. Watts seems to be saying Tulsi is the divisive element in the

Dem Party for 2020. He compared her role with that of certain candidates of the left in 2016 which negatively affected Hillary's run against Trump.

[flamingdem]

9. Hmm. Who knows what the repubs and Putin have in store

with Tulsi performing for them. I have to wonder what she's getting out of it.

[BannonsLiver]

14. Tulski's going to run 3rd party

I know she’s said she isn’t, but I don’t believe her.

[flamingdem]

15. Good grief.

She won't draw votes from sane people at least. I hope she doesn't get the support of the Greens.

[hlthe2b]

4. Of course. She can't win, but she gives Trump (their "chosen one") COVER

and by extension, Putin. Her attacks on the "Democrat" party--as she not so subtly refers to it, is inviting R's to manipulate primaries in states where all comers can vote, given there is not a real R primary this year.

All makes for a lovefest on the RW for Tulsi and lots of room for the bots to engage.

[PatSeg]

8. Yeah

When she referred to her own party as the "Democrat" party, she removed any and all doubt about who and what she is.

[flamingdem]

10. What do you think Tulsi gets out of this arrangement?

Is she vengeful or being paid?

[hlthe2b]

11. ...

One part ideology, one part attention, three
parts opportunity (poll and financial support, receptive audience to her perceived grievances)

[flamingdem]

12. True, she'll get donations with all of this negative attention

bingo.. plus her ideology and endless need to promote herself as the final word on the military.

[Gothmog]

13. New data shows that only one Democratic candidate is viewed favorably by Russia.

Link to tweet

[Cha]

16. Thank you for that, Goth..

Who knew!

[oasis]

17. Exposed!

[Gothmog]

18. Russia loves Tulsi

Link to tweet

[oasis]

19. Data shows Russia favors Tulsi. I don't doubt it a bit. nt

[TomCADem]

20. Which Is Odd Because Bernie's Record Is Even More Pro-Russia...

...than Tulsi. Then again, in 2016, Russian trolls were pretty aggressively pushing Bernie. My take is that Russia is using Gabbard to more aggressively attack Democrats since he is now a frontrunner.

https://www.vpr.org/post/how-russian-social-media-effort-boosted-bernie#stream/0

Bernie Sanders inspired a political movement with his insurgent 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet he's been reluctant to acknowledge that his campaign likely got some help from a Russian covert propaganda campaign.

The allegations are laid out in a recent charges by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The 37-page indictment handed down last month includes dozens of allegations that Russians stole Americans' identities and created fake Facebook and Twitter accounts that worked as internet trolls designed to sow discord in the campaign.

These fake groups even staged political rallies, including one that featured an actress playing Hillary Clinton in a cage.

[oasis]

22. In 2016, Tulsi chucked her post as DNC deputy to join Bernie's camp.

Something may have been in the works very early on.

[TomCADem]

21. Salon (April 2019) - New data suggests Russians targeted Bernie Sanders voters to help elect Trump

While a lot of the focus is on Russia trolls pushing Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders has vigorously defended Tulsi Gabbard even as she repeatedly appears on Fox News to attack the Democratic Party. Is Bernie's defense driven by the fact that Bernie himself benefitted from Russian social media engineering? With all the attention on Russia's continuing efforts to influence Trump with respect to the Ukraine, shouldn't we also ask about Bernie, particularly since some folks on the left like Krystal Ball are ready to push Trump's conspiracy theories against the Biden's from the "left."

Bernie did not do enough to condemn Russian interference in 2016. Will Bernie do better in 2020? The fact that Bernie is going out of his way to defend Tulsi Gabbard is not promising.

https://www.salon.com/2019/04/12/new-data-suggests-russians-targeted-bernie-sanders-voters-to-help-elect-trump/

Russia’s effort to target Bernie Sanders supporters after the 2016 primaries in a bid to help swing the election to Donald Trump was more “central” to their strategy than previously known, according to an analysis by researchers at Clemson University.

The researchers analyzed English-language tweets originating from Russia, many as part of the country’s effort to influence the 2016 election, and found that the targeting of Sanders supporters was “central” to their strategy, the Washington Post reports.

It’s impossible to say how many tweets targeted Sanders supporters without mentioning his name, but researchers found that around 9,000 Russian-sourced tweets used the word “Bernie.” The tweets were “liked” 59,281 times and retweeted 61,804 times. Thousands of other tweets were also targeted at Sanders supporters in an attempt to dissuade them from backing Hillary Clinton but did not mention Sanders by name.

“I think there is no question that Sanders was central to their strategy. He was clearly used as a mechanism to decrease voter turnout for Hillary Clinton,” Clemson communications professor Darren Linvill told the Post, adding that the analysis shows the targeted tweets came at a “ higher volume than people thought.” Many of the tweets were aimed at disillusioned Sanders supporters who believed he was treated unfairly by the Democratic Party. Other tweets simply disparaged Clinton.