It's amazing how leftist cable shows sound like they're still stuck in 2017 complaining about how Russia owns Donald Trump. Take truth-challenged MSNBC host Brian Williams, who oozed on Friday night that Trump is "absent" when the house is "on fire." He brought on MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash -- a top aide in Obama's Pentagon and CIA -- to analyze the new report on Russia, China, and Iran and the election. Russia favors Trump, and the other two favor Biden.
Naturally, Bash and Williams chose to ignore the parts of the report about China and Iran and focused exclusively on Russia with Bash alleging that Moscow has heaped tremendous benefits from their 2016 "investment."
Williams began with his usual hyperbole, "the house, we are told, is on fire. Absent a president in the fight, it's a uniquely helpless feeling, isn't it, for the remaining few of us troubled by the idea that Russia is actively engaged in a presidential election less than 90 days away. Who do we -- is there someone in customer service that, again, the small subset of us who still care about such things, who do we see about this?"
Oh, woe to the virtuous subset that never gave up their conspiracy theory....
Bash agreed that nothing is being done, "Yeah, where do we go to get our apology or our outrage, or our determination to protect America's national security? Because, Brian, Russia got a fantastic return on their investment in 2016. Just think, I mean President Trump nearly pulled America out of NATO, which would have certainly unraveled the trans-Atlantic alliance that has kept Europe and the United States free and kept Russian aggression in check." That's a wild exaggeration.
Bash also ignored the day's news -- that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Russian counterpart in July about the news that Russia offered bounties to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. He said "of course the U.S. didn't do anything about it. Trump didn't do anything about it, and Russia has paid no price."
He then reiterated his previous point, "Russia has gotten a phenomenal return on their investment, and so it does not surprise me at all that they are engaged once again to denigrate President Trump's opponent in the election, Joe Biden."
Since this was a Team Obama segment, no one mentioned Trump's Russia policy has been tougher than Obama's.
Bash concluded his remarks by accusing Trump of welcoming such interference, "I would argue he's tacitly welcoming it because he's been on the phone with Putin several times over the last several months, and not once has he confronted him over these intelligence reports."
It's hard to take Williams and Bash seriously when they say they are among the few taking this seriously. Apart from Williams briefly mentioning the report talked about China and Iran preferring Biden, they never delved into why those adversaries would wish to see Trump lose. If they were truly concerned about election interference they would talk about all election interference.
This segment was brought to you by Allstate.
Here is a transcript for the August 7 show:
MSNBC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams11:09 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Meantime, Jeremy Bash, the house, we are told, is on fire. Absent a president in the fight, it's a uniquely helpless feeling, isn't it, for the remaining few of us troubled by the idea that Russia is actively engaged in a presidential election less than 90 days away. Who do we -- is there someone in customer service that, again, the small subset of us who still care about such things, who do we see about this?
JEREMY BASH: Yeah, where do we go to get our apology or our outrage, or our determination to protect America's national security because, Brian, Russia got a fantastic return on their investment in 2016. Just think, I mean President Trump nearly pulled America out of NATO, which would have certainly unraveled the transatlantic alliance that has kept Europe and the United States free and kept Russian aggression in check. Russian officials and their intelligence services paid bounties to the Taliban to attack American forces and of course the U.S. didn't do anything about it. Trump didn't do anything about it, and Russia has paid no price. And so Russia has gotten a phenomenal return on their investment, and so it does not surprise me at all that they are engaged once again to denigrate President Trump's opponent in the election, Joe Biden, who of course is leading President Trump in the polls. And Trump's response is, this is all a hoax, there's nothing to see here, and, in fact, I would argue he's tacitly welcoming it because he's been on the phone with Putin several times over the last several months, and not once has he confronted him over these intelligence reports, which were no doubt briefed to him before they were made public today, Brian.
