A few days before Fox finally acknowledged that yes, Russia did try to interfere with our election, Fox host Neil Cavuto did his part to help pull the wool over Fox viewers’ eyes by sowing distrust of the CIA.
On Tuesday, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson appeared on Cavuto’s Fox Business show and the interview was repeated on his Fox News show. The subject was that some Electoral College electors have requested an intelligence briefing on the hacking before their vote on Monday. Cavuto seemed dead set on discrediting any notion that Russia had hacked.
“Look, the Russians interfering in this election, that’s unprecedented, that’s wrong,” Richardson explained. He told an already argumentative Cavuto, “The issue is interference in our electoral process by a country that has been very unfriendly to us.”
Cavuto interrupted. “But you’re darn sure that this is the case because this is the same CIA - and I take no umbrage against citing them for making bad calls, we all make bad calls. That said, in 2003, there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the same CIA that said in 1998 that it was surprised by India having nuclear capability and then nuclear tests, the same CIA that said in 1990 the CIA was caught off guard when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the same CIA that missed 9/11,” Cavuto complained. (Actually, the CIA warned about 9/11 and the Bush administration ignored it
.)
“Why are we automatically assuming what they’re saying is unequivocally true?” Cavuto now asked.
“Because it’s not just the CIA, it’s 17 agencies.,” Richardson countered. “It’s the National Security Agency, it’s State Department intelligence.”
Richardson also took a swipe at Trump, saying, “It’s not good that the president of the United States is belittling our intelligence agency. He is the main customer. And for him to trash our intelligence agencies is a very bad precedent. It’s wrong and the fact is the Russians did interfere.”
Cavuto interrupted again. “Didn’t Democrats trash these intelligence agencies when George Bush went to war based on a CIA claim and other agencies claims that there were weapons of mass destruction? Then it was OK to go after Bush for that.” As if that, which happened under a CIA in a different administration 14 years ago had anything to do with the Russian hacking. Furthermore, before all this happened, when did you hear anyone on Fox call the CIA untrustworthy?
“Now we’re having it the other way around, and Donald Trump is saying, ‘Alright it might be Russia, it might be China, it might be other enemies. What’s wrong with having doubts about a so-called consensus view that’s been wrong oftentimes more often than not?” Cavuto now complained.
The argument went back and forth until Richardson said, “There’s no dispute on the Russia issue, you know that.”
So Cavuto then tried to suggest Richardson was just acting out of partisanship. “Would you agree to the same rush, sir, if we had Hillary Clinton winning the election and the Trump folks were stating this, and we ought to explore Russia or any other country’s role in the election. Would you be just as zealous?”
“Yes I would,” Richardson said, “and this is why I think it’s important that bi-partisan Senate Committee, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Jack Reed, Democrats, Republicans look into this … Let’s not trash our professional in the intelligence agency.”
Cavuto changed course a bit. “Let’s say we found out that Russia was involved. What do you want them (the electors) to do? To not vote for Donald Trump? … What’s the purpose of this?”
“The purpose is to find out what happened with the Russian involvement,” Richardson said.
“Do you want them to vote differently?” Cavuto asked.
“They should vote their conscience,” Richardson replied.
This was part of a Fox News narrative obviously designed to discredit the CIA. It was in line with other Fox efforts. Until last night when, suddenly, Fox reported that, yes, Russia did interfere.
Watch the gaslighting below, from the December 13, 2016 Your World.
Wish we as citizens could have a vote of no confidence and let majority rule (I’m sure that now that we know what we know, we’d get a majority too) and redo the whole damn election.
I just don’t trust anything about this election now after Russian tampering, much less the Republicans. Especially after the selections made by Dump and Prick and what is shaping up to be a hot mess of a cabinet/administration and also because of the shenanigans going on in NC. Scary stuff.
My MIL was in Hitler youth and my FIL was conscripted into the army in ‘44 when he was fifteen and Hitler and his army was taking every man and boy who could heft a rifle and shooting them and their families if they refused. They both have died within the last five years. She was suffering from dementia and she’d watch the news and sometimes think that some of the things she was hearing and seeing on the news was from her youth and she’d start in on Hitler and the Nazis. Must of been a pretty bad time if hearing Republicans on the news is dredging up memories of Nazi Germany.
My husbands grandmother and father were White Russians, have a pic of him in his uniform on his horse. Mention the Communists in front of them and they’d use to spit and call them pigs.
Unfortunately, that whole generation is dead and dying and what they could bear witness to is dying with them. Soon there will be no one left to sound the alarm. Probably what the Republicans have been waiting for.
“They should vote their conscience.”, said Mr. Richardson. That’s the last thing that Faux wants. They want everyone to follow the party line like good little commies.
