What do you do when someone questions the Democratic establishment? Slime them as a Russian asset, of course.
First, they did it to President Trump, pushing a misleading narrative for years that he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report debunked the narrative, but the damage was done. Then, the “Russia asset” smear was thrown by Hillary Clinton and her stooges at combat veteran Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and, now that Sen. Bernie Sanders, a radical socialist, is taking over the party and sprinting ahead to front-runner status, they’re pulling out the same old, tired smear against him.
Both 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg and CBS News anchors invoked Russia, casting aspersions against Sanders and saying that he is the preferred candidate of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“I think that Donald Trump thinks it would be better if he’s president,” Bloomberg said. “I do not think so. Vladimir Putin thinks that Donald Trump should be president of the United States, and that’s why Russia is helping you [Bernie Sanders] get elected because you’ll lose to him.” In follow-up questions, CBS anchors also invoked the Putin-supports-you narrative, asking Pete Buttigieg, “Why would the Russians want to be working on behalf of Bernie Sanders?”
Russia is trying to help Bernie become the Democratic nominee because they know it will help Trump win again in 2020. It’s that simple. pic.twitter.com/gtme6gjrBY
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 26, 2020
Bernie calling out Bloomberg for being China’s lapdog is much more real than Russia Russia Russia! #DemDebate2020
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 26, 2020
This smear is honestly a disgrace. Yes, it may be true that, in his ongoing efforts to sow discord in the U.S. elections, Putin is taking some actions that might help Sanders. Yet, the point is to sow discord, and that’s what Democrats do when they jump on Sanders over this smear and act as if it’s his fault or says something negative about him at all.
Sanders is a lot of things: a cranky socialist, a septuagenarian, and really bad at math. But he’s not a traitor, a Russian asset, or someone who would act as a stooge for Putin if elected.
We need to make real arguments against our political opponents, not resort to ad hominem. At Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, too many of the candidates took the easy way out and took cheap shots at Sanders over issues beyond his control.
