February 22, 2020

Trump Taunts Nevada Democratic Primary About Russian Meddling

“Be careful of Russia, Russia, Russia,” he tweeted.

Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images via ZUMA

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The Nevada Democratic caucus is today, and President Donald Trump spent his morning on Twitter, suggesting that Democrats “be careful of Russia, Russia, Russia.”

There is a bit to unpack here.

First, there’s Trump’s history of dismissing concerns about Russian interference. Faced with evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump has claimed  it was actually the work of a deep state conspiracy. And when he was briefed recently about what Russia plans for the 2020 election—which includes disrupting the Democratic primaries and general election to undermine American confidence in the democratic process—he basically threw a tantrum. 

In his tweet this morning, Trump seems to be referencing a 2019 report from special counsel Robert Mueller that indicated that Russia might want to boost Sanders in his primary against Hillary Clinton. The New York Times reported Friday, “The report quoted internal documents from the Internet Research Agency, a troll factory sponsored by Russian intelligence, in an order to its operatives: ‘Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest except for Sanders and Trump — we support them.'”

Then there is the name-calling of Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment proceedings. Schiff attended the recent intelligence briefing with Trump, and Trump was reportedly angry that his critic was present. At that briefing, officials confirmed that Russia has hoped to disrupt the 2020 Democratic primaries. 

The final thing to note here: In his tweet, Trump urged citizens to “Vote!”—yet Nevada Republicans actually are missing out on the primary process. In a bid last year to avoid a possible serious challenge to Trump in the primary, the state GOP canceled its caucus.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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