The Biden administration accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating a covert campaign to influence the coming U.S. presidential election and erode international support for Ukraine, blaming the Kremlin for targeting American voters with political propaganda and disinformation.The influence campaign, which American spy agencies have concluded is aiming to help Republican nominee Donald Trump reclaim the White House, involved Putin’s inner circle and included a scheme to surreptitiously bankroll an American media startup and direct Russian public-relations companies to promote state-sponsored narratives to influence the presidential race. Another Russia hype/hoax before a presidential election. Four times in the last four presidential elections, Democrats & the media make issues of Russia and its threat to our elections. Yet, looking at those four elections, they can't even get straight what they think about Russia. - 2008, make fun of McCain / Palin because of their belief that Russia is a threat - 2012, make fun of Mitt Romney because he says Russia is a threat - 2016, accuse and then try to convict Trump of collusion with Russia because they are such a threat. This is later dropped and determined untrue. - 2020, again, shamelessly accuse Russia of supporting Trump's re-election with election interference. And, now in 2024, they resurface the Russian election threat, targeting the Trump campaign as the supposed beneficiary.  Russia is supposed to have spent $10M on X, Instagram, YouTube & others. In 2020, Zuckerberg & Bloomberg spent upwards of $1B dollars on the Biden campaign, and someone thinks Russia spending $10M is going to have a impact? No, this is part of a tired, coordinated, disinformation campaign including US media, US government and Democrat campaign officials.

• For example, The Wall Street Journal noted last week that:

In the past 51 days, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, USA Today, the Associated Press and CNN (twice) have run stories, based on often anonymous Biden intelligence briefers, suggesting Russia backs Mr. Trump. Understand: Russian propaganda and social-media efforts are real but trivial in effect, unless magnified by U.S. news outlets to soil the candidate of their choice. The Russians understand this. So do U.S. officials. The Obama intelligence leadership testified that the Russians were “loud” in their activities because it was our reaction to their activities that produced the desired chaos. Keep an eye on any follow-up to the recent FBI raids on the homes of gadflies Scott Ritter and Dimitri Simes, American commentators on Russia’s barely watched international TV service. But details are irrelevant when headlines about the raids now can be used to damage Mr. Trump. But also understand: Ms. Harris is merely the available instrument since Mr. Biden stepped aside. The chain of causation actually begins with FBI chief James Comey’s foolish, improper intervention in the 2016 race, which inadvertently helped Mr. Trump.

• NBC got into that act in February, Russia’s 2024 election interference has already begun.
• Also, a few days ago, Politico ran an article about Hacking blind spot: States struggle to vet coders of election software, with ties to Russia.
• And, today, USA Today reports that Putin says he was going to support Biden, but since he is not running he would support Harris!

Laughable, if it wasn't so sinister.  In this 2020 post, we said the same things that apply to this bit of political election interference.  And later, it was reported that such interference had no impact on the 2016 election and was simply a misdirection play in 2020 to keep eyes off other election integrity issues. A couple of points to also highlight about this specific 2024 report: - Are Russia, China and Iran always attempting to impact American elections? Yes. Consistently, for decades! - Iran has specifically threatened the life of former President Trump.  But, we are to worry about $10m, because it is supposedly to be (but not) in support of Trump. - Why do Democrats, media and government activists put out Russia narratives attacking Donald Trump prior to elections? Because they are using it to impact the election. It is one of many such disinformation tools being used like; ballot access denial, criminal trials, assassination denial, cognitive decline, military slights, and much more. - It is absolutely foolish to think that Russia, China or Iran want Donald Trump as president. It makes no sense and defies reality. Last time he nearly bankrupted Iran, he cost China $$B in tariffs and stopped their technology pirating, and he told Russia not to think about invading Ukraine. - Republicans have isolated Russia as a high profile national security threat for decades. John McCain/Palin, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump have made that point. Each has been attacked by Democrats. Specifically Mitt Romney was slammed for highlighting Russia as a threat in 2012, saying he was using 1980s foreign policy.  Trump attacked in 2017 for using diplomacy.  In reality, it is the Democrats who have taken Russia lightly. The only serious attention they have paid to Russia was to say each of those previously mentioned were Russian stooges, and to lamely react to Russian aggression (Obama in Crimea, Biden in Ukraine). - This national security alert is designed to give a black eye to right wing influencers ahead of the election (even though they said those named had no idea they were being targeted). The commentators named included one who tweeted against Trump. The pro-Trump commentators communicated absolutely nothing they had not said before the unintended contact with Russian operatives. Nonetheless, any future comments from right wing commentators are going to labeled as 'sourced by Russia'. - What does it mean when Vladimir Putin came out conveniently yesterday in an interview saying he supported Biden and now supports Harris? Does it mean that he really supports Trump? That he doesn't support Trump? It means he wants to sow chaos, period. - Putin is doing, and Russia has been doing, everything they can to create chaos in America. Who is he supporting? Trump? No. If it gets out that he is supporting Trump, what would the reaction of voters be in the US? They would not support Trump. If he says he is supporting Biden/Harris what would happen? People would not support Biden/Harris. If he says both, which is he supporting, what is he saying? He wants us fighting ourselves. That lack of unity is the most important thing for our adversaries globally. - what the CIA/FBI/et al should be doiing with this is quietly following and arresting people without creating the high profile media event the Russia covert sources are looking for. That just plays into their hands. It is not a news alert unless you find something significant. Everyone expect Russia, China & Iran to meddle in everything American. Help us stop impacts to our electrical grid, water supply and communications systems. That would be useful. If a right wing media outlet ran this national security alert it would be considered another election conspiracy lie. More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):