Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) chose allegiance to Donald Trump and Russian propaganda over country and truth today by validating the thoroughly debunked Trump/Russia conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the DNC and Clinton computers in 2016.
Near the end of Kennedy’s appearance on Fox News Sunday today, host Chris Wallace noted that "former NSC official" Fiona Hill had debunked the right-wing narrative absolving Russia in her impeachment hearing testimony. Wallace also noted that Trump nevertheless "doubled down on that the very next day.”
Wallace played a clip of Hill calling the Ukraine-did-it conspiracy theory “a fictional narrative” that is being “propagated by the Russian security services themselves.” He followed that with a clip of Trump saying, “They gave the server to CrowdStrike or whatever it’s called… which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian… And I still wanna see that server… You know the FBI has never gotten that server… That’s a big part of this whole thing.”
Wallace then asked his guest, “Senator Kennedy, who do you believe was responsible for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign computers, their emails? Was it Russia or Ukraine?
That prompted the following jaw-dropping exchange:
KENNEDY: I don’t know, nor do you, nor do any of us.
WALLACE: Let me just interrupt to say the entire intelligence community says it was Russia.
KENNEDY: Right, but it could also be Ukraine. I’m not saying that I know one way or the other. I’m saying that Ms. Hill is entitled to her opinion but no rebuttal evidence was allowed to be offered. We know, at least that the Republicans in the House wanted to call a witness, a DNC political operative who lobbied the Ukrainian embassy to be involved, get involved in 2016 election. We don’t know if Ukraine did that, we don’t know to what extent because they won’t let the president offer his evidence and that’s why I say once again the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence if you’re not allowed to call your own witnesses.
The Republican-sought witness Kennedy alluded to was undoubtedly Alexandra Chalupa, who is at the center of the right-wing conspiracy theory. Media Matters has an excellent article thoroughly debunking this BS that some of Wallace's colleagues have promoted to counter Hill's very damning testimony.
Also, Wallace didn't mention it but Hill served as the Trump White House's own top Russia expert. She's more than just a "former NSC official." Yet Kennedy chose to give Hill (as well as the entire intelligence community) equal weight with Russian propaganda.
Watch Kennedy throw the intelligence community under the bus and pretend fiction could be fact below, from the November 24, 2019 Fox News Sunday.
By the way, just before Kennedy tried to discredit Hill’s testimony as an “opinion,” he licked his lips and made an expression that suggests to me he knew was about to say something he’d rather not. Here’s the screen grab:
Lordy, we are going to busy over this coming year, finding forums (fora?) in the crucial states to bring some sense and cold reality to the hordes of dug-in self-harmers – the sad and deluded non-billionaire Republicans.
The good thing about this disaster is that at least these guys are coming out on the record and not hiding their idiocy. Frankly, his opponent in his next race should run clips like this every day of the year.
Getting back to Senator John ‘Haney’ Kennedy. I heard yesterday a reporter on an MSNBC panel say she’s been talking to a lot of Republicans in Congress and they say they hate going home because Trump and his WH minions are calling them non-stop and twisting their arms to the breaking point not just to vote against impeachment but to go all out singing Dear Leader’s praises and commit their lives to defending him to the (political) death. And, of course, the news has been covering all the goodies Trump has been giving away (with our taxpayer money) to Republicans like play time at Camp David in exchange for a good impeachment wet ass kiss.
So I get these painfully awkward moments Republican politicians like Kennedy here may regret for the rest of their careers. Total public humiliation talking pure stupid in exchange for MAGA’s loyalty – speaking of “Green Acres” rural America.
From IMDB: "There was a false rumour going around that the cast had a luau on the final day of filming and Arnold the Piggy was eaten. Years later, Tom Lester admitted that he made up the story, because he was tired of people asking him almost continuously whatever had happened to Arnold the Piggy.
“Arnold the pig was the only cast member to win an award for a performance in a sitcom. He won the coveted “Patsy” Award in 1967, given to the best performance by an animal."
You know Republicans realize Trump is guilty as sin because their excuses are so lame. The Senate just got briefed by the intelligence services that all this anti-Ukrainian election fraud stuff is Russian propaganda. Yet here Kennedy plays the naive rube whose knowledge of all this is no deeper than the testimony of a impeachment hearing witness. Worse he pretends that witness is some Democratic plant and not THE subject matter expert on the scene.
I guess Kennedy has to polish Trump’s apple after Dear Leader made a complete ass of himself spewing crackpot Crowdstrike conspiracy theories to the horror of the Fox & Friends curvy couch bobbleheads.