Did anyone else catch this nugget in the indictment today? Thanks to the Des Moines Register, we have a story on how the Russians allegedly messed with the public analysis and discussion in the immediate aftermath of the Iowa Caucus event in 2016 that pitted Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders & Martin O’Malley against each other.
In view of this story, some of the underlying motivation behind the war of words and recriminations that raged after the caucus becomes a bit more clear. I was up in Iowa for the caucus event & remember that almost immediately there was a theme circulating in portions of the media and on the internet that the Clinton camp had cheated in order to squeeze by Bernie Sanders to win the Iowa Caucus.
Once I returned home from Iowa & dug deeper into the coverage & discussion, including here at Dailykos, I was shocked at what I saw in terms of the type of misinformation as well as the quantity of it that was being spread that sought to undermine the long-standing caucus process itself, much less the 2016 results.
It was a head-scratching period of time for me given that I felt something was not on the up and up in what I was seeing & I recall being suspect of the motives of more than one member posting on Dailykos. And now, in retrospect, I recall being suspicious about their actual identities.
See what you think…
Russians claimed fraud in Iowa caucuses, Mueller indictment alleges
Jason Noble, jnoble2@dmreg.com Published 1:06 p.m. CT Feb. 16, 2018 | Updated 3:29 p.m. CT Feb. 16, 2018
Russian operatives trying to sow discord and distrust during the 2016 presidential campaign bought social media advertisements alleging fraud in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
That’s one of the allegations in a blockbuster indictment made public today by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s investigating Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The indictment alleges that an organized group of Russian operatives began promoting a range of allegations of voter fraud by the Democratic Party in the summer of 2016 as the general election race between Trump and Hillary Clinton was heating up.
Among those was an allegation about the caucuses, the first presidential contest of the 2016 nominating process, which Clinton won by a tiny margin over Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders.
On or about August 4, 2016,” the indictment says, “Defendants and their co-conspirators began purchasing advertisements that promoted a post on the ORGANIZATION-controlled Facebook account 'Stop A.I.' The post alleged that 'Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus.'”
But the fact that they seized on the close caucus result between Clinton and Sanders and the intraparty divide it engendered following the caucuses is significant, said Norm Sterzenbach, a long-time Iowa political consultant and caucuses expert who acted as an informal adviser to the Iowa Democratic Party on caucus night.
“They clearly were paying close attention to our political discourse and drilling down deep into the details to increase the impact of their meddling,” Sterzenbach said. “When the Democratic Party was going to great lengths to unify after a hard-fought primary season, it appears Russia was doing everything imaginable – and unimaginable – to divide us.”
The Des Moines Register story by Jason Noble
Be gentle readers. This is my first diary & it may be a tad bare bones & need a tune up of sorts.