Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi addressed the recent warnings about Russian interference in U.S. elections from the Biden-Harris administration on FOX News, dismissing the notion of a relentless campaign to reelect Donald Trump as a “phony story.” Taibbi argued that repeated claims of interference often turn out to be baseless or misleading and suggested that without the Trump angle, the media would show little interest in the issue.
“So when you watched this big news conference and they said $10 million in this effort to influence U.S. elections and also other countries, $10 million, which is actually not a huge amount of money given the kind of money that floats around in these efforts. What was your takeaway from that big press conference yesterday?” Fox host Martha MacCallum asked Taibbi to open the Thursday segment.
“Well, first of all, I mean, it’s just incredible. This story just won’t go away,” Taibbi, who helped Elon Musk expose Twitter’s censorship after the billionaire took it over, began. “It just reminds me of the Friday the 13th movies. No matter how many times they killed Jason, he keeps leaping out of Crystal Lake in each sequel. And this is the same thing. This Russiagate story will not die. There is a criminal case here. It remains to be seen exactly how much meat there is on the bone in the actual case.
“But what Merrick Garland said in the press conference is not the same as what all those commentators you showed said. He said that what this content was supporting was consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions. That’s not the same as saying that they were trying to promote Donald Trump,” Taibbi continued. “And when you get down to the nitty-gritty of the story, it’s very confusing, actually, as to what really happened and who was supporting whom.”
“Yeah, indeed it is,” MacCallum said before playing an MSNBC segment featuring host Joe Scarborough, who was once again promoting the ‘Russiagate’ version of events, which turned out to be bogus following Trump’s 2016 win. “This is Joe Scarborough jumping on this story this morning, basically saying, look, we were right all along. And I would just remind our viewers that Brit Hume, our senior political analyst, called this basically the biggest journalistic fiasco in his 50 years of covering politics. But Joe Scarborough is back on the bandwagon this morning.”
MacCallum added: “I don’t think anybody is surprised, I guess, is what is the point that I’m making, that Russia tries to influence people’s thinking around the world. So does China. So does Iran. And they’re big players in this. But when it came to Iran, they did not say that Iran appears to be supporting the Harris campaign in similar efforts on social media. Why do you think that was, Matt?”
“Because the utility of this story, you know, as a propaganda vehicle is entirely designed. It’s aimed at Donald Trump squarely,” the journalist said. “This story would not be in the news. You wouldn’t have every network covering it. You wouldn’t have Joe Scarborough doing rants about it if it didn’t have a Donald Trump angle to it. And this has been true since the very first time they unveiled this story way back in 2016. We’ve seen so many iterations of the same theme.
“And every time it turns out to be less than meets the eye or a hoax, like I discovered with the Hamilton 68 site in the Twitter files or the Steele dossier,” he added. “So, you know, we’ll find out. But this idea that there’s this ongoing, relentless, massive organized campaign by Russia to get Donald Trump elected is just a phony story. This might be a real story, but it’s not a big story yet anyway. Not yet, anyway.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.