Things got very heated Wednesday evening in a taped interview between former Trump campaign chairman Cory Lewandowski and MTP Daily moderator Chuck Todd when the MSNBC host refused to hear the facts behind the Clinton-DNC connection to the Russians. “If you're going to speak in facts, at least speak in facts,” Todd shouted, but he just didn’t want to hear them.
In their interview, which was taped on Tuesday, Todd wanted to know if Lewandowski believed Russia tried to influence the U.S. election. Of course, Lewandowski answered in the affirmative and made the case that they were trying to cause havoc in the election through avenues like the infamous dossier funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
“I know you're trying to twist this around there and you focus there, but I'm talking about everything we've learned,” Todd shot back. “Do you acknowledge that the Russians were trying everything they could to defeat Hillary Clinton?”
Lewandowski argued that if the Russians were working solely to sink Clinton’s campaign, then why did the campaign spend tons of money on a firm which hired a British spy that was working with Russian agents? “There never has been a payment from the Trump campaign or the RNC to anybody attempting to coordinate with Russia to get information. That's only come from the Democrats,” he explained.
Todd appeared to go off the deep end and suggest the whole idea of Clinton and the Dems financing the dossier was concocted by President Trump:
You ever heard of a campaign getting opposition research and then deciding not to use it? You have to make the assumption that this was all -- this grand conspiracy that Hillary Clinton did to get caught and somehow lose the election, it just -- that part of it is, is a head-scratcher here. To your story as to what you and the President are trying to paint here.
Todd’s line of questioning regarding the campaign’s use of the dossier or lack thereof sounds like he doubts the parties involved were actually connected to the dossier. But it wasn’t Trump that reported it, it was The Washington Post back on October 24. “The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier,” they said in the very first sentence.
And if we’ve learned anything from the Russian contrived Facebook ads, it’s that they were aggressively playing both sides against each other. It had been shown that Russian trolls were creating Facebook groups and events promoting left-wing and right-wing causes and designed to inflame both sides of the political aisle.
When Lewandowski mentioned that they paid millions of dollars for the dossier, Todd flipped. “It's a fact the lawyer, that the attorney and the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign in the DNC paid some money, but you're creating a dollar figure here, that is not a provable fact yet.” But that’s because the lawyer had been lying to the press (something he should care about) about paying for it to begin with. They’re now facing an FEC complaint because they didn’t properly account for the dossier.
But the reason that Todd and the rest of the liberal media dismissed the fact that Clinton and the DNC were working (even though intermediaries) with foreign agents was that they didn’t want their anti-Trump narrative to be negated.
When it was first discovered that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russia lawyer in Trump Tower to get dirt on Clinton the media exploded with claims of “treason.” On the day the Don Jr. news first broke, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) dedicated over 31 minutes on the story. But when The Washington Post exposed Clinton and the DNC as the dossier’s backers, they spent six and half minutes downplaying it.
Transcript below:
MSNBC
MTP Daily
November 1, 2017
5:18:21 PM Eastern(…)
CHUCK TODD: I know you're trying to twist this around there and you focus there, but I'm talking about everything we've learned. John Podesta's e-mails and the things that came out of there, and the DNC hack. Do you acknowledge that the Russians were trying everything they could to defeat Hillary Clinton?
CORY LEWANDOWSKI: Chuck, I don't think that's the case at all. If that was the case, why would the DNC and why would the Podesta team be paying this MI6 agent millions of dollars, like $9 million to go get Russia information to provide a false dossier so they could go after Donald Trump and, look, granted, it came out after the election. But that was a direct payment. The only payment we have seen so far from anybody directly tied to Russia was paid--
TODD: Cory.
LEWANDOWSKI: No, no, Chuck. There never has been a payment--
TODD: I understand.
LEWANDOWSKI: --from the Trump campaign or the RNC to anybody attempting to coordinate with Russia to get information. That's only come from the Democrats.
TODD: You ever heard of a campaign getting opposition research and then deciding not to use it? I mean, you understand that –
LEWANDOWSKI: Of course.
TODD: -- for the conspiracy you're putting together, you have to make the assumption that this was all -- this grand conspiracy that Hillary Clinton did to get caught and somehow lose the election, it just -- that part of it is, is a head-scratcher here. To your story as to what you and the President are trying to paint here.
LEWANDOWSKI: Chuck, I'm laying out the facts. That the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid multiples of millions of dollars to a former MI6 special agent to obtain information from Russia.
TODD: Wait. That's not an established fact. Cory, that is not an established fact. It's a fact the lawyer, that the attorney and the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign in the DNC paid some money, but you're creating a dollar figure here, that is not a provable fact yet. If you're going to speak in facts, at least speak in facts.
(…)
