After Russia Hacks Ukrainian Company, Bernie Sanders Finds a Way To Blame Republicans
The Ukrainian energy company Burisma is best known as the one-time employer of Hunter Biden, a man who seems curiously unemployable if you don’t consider his last name.
The firm, however, is now at the center of a Russian hacking scandal — and, rather unsurprisingly, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has a hot take on it that implicates the GOP.
The New York Times reported Monday that beginning in November, Russian hackers had attempted to hack into Burisma using phishing emails designed to obtain login credentials and passwords from Burisma employees, according to Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm Area 1, which detected the unusual activity.
Some of the email blasts, which appeared to come from inside the company, were successful. Cue a new round of Russian collusion conspiracy dog whistles.
“The timing of the Russian campaign mirrors the GRU hacks we saw in 2016 against the DNC and John Podesta,” Area 1 co-founder Oren Falkowitz said. “Once again, they are stealing email credentials, in what we can only assume is a repeat of Russian interference in the last election.”
The Times, never one to ever editorialize in its reporting, wrote this regarding the hacks: “The Russian tactics are strikingly similar to what American intelligence agencies say was Russia’s hacking of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. In that case, once they had the emails, the Russians used trolls to spread and spin the material, and built an echo chamber to widen its effect.”
Furthermore, The Times reported that the hacks “appear to be running parallel to an effort by Russian spies in Ukraine to dig up information in the analog world that could embarrass the Bidens, according to an American security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. The spies, the official said, are trying to penetrate Burisma and working sources in the Ukrainian government in search of emails, financial records and legal documents.”
I thought any talk of anything askew with Hunter Biden’s time at Burisma was nothing but engaging in conspiracy theories, but I digress.
The Times and plenty of other liberals found ways to imply in a vague way that there was some kind of muddy collusion going on here. The independent senator from Vermont and 2020 presidential candidate, meanwhile, came right out and blamed Republicans for the hack.
“The 2020 election is likely to be the most consequential election in modern American history, and I am alarmed by new reports that Russia recently hacked into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the impeachment trial, as well as Russia’s plans to once again meddle in our elections and in our democracy,” Sanders said in a Tuesday statement, according to The Hill.
“After our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, including with thousands of paid ads on Facebook, the New York Times now reports that Russia likely represents the biggest threat of election meddling in 2020, including through disinformation campaigns, promoting hatred, hacking into voting systems, and by exploiting the political divisions sewn by Donald Trump,” he continued.
“Meanwhile, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has shown again and again his total disinterest in taking even basic steps to stand up to Russian interference.”
Sanders wasn’t the only one blaming Republicans for the hacking, unfortunately, and the reason is the fact that Republicans refuse to take up a House bill that Senate Majority Leader McConnell not inaccurately called “The Democrat Politician Protection Act.”
In her statement about the hack, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stumped for that legislation — the For the People Act, a liberal wishlist that has no chance of passing in the Senate.
“The alarming reports that the Russian Government is continuing to interfere in our elections to benefit the President and to undermine our democracy highlight the urgent need for action,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“For months, our intelligence and law enforcement officials have made clear that the Russians ‘interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion’ and are now launching a ‘365-days-a-year threat’ to compromise the 2020 elections – yet the President has refused to take meaningful action to strengthen our election security.
“American elections should be decided by the American people, not by the Russian Government. As our first act in the Majority, House Democrats advanced H.R. 1, the For The People Act, to secure our elections, and we have since passed multiple strong bills to further strengthen our nation’s defenses. But Leader McConnell has condemned our bills to his legislative graveyard, giving hostile foreign powers the green light to attack our country.
“The President and every Republican Senator must explain to the American people why they are refusing to defend our national security and the integrity of our elections.”
The For the People Act would do little to secure the vote — it has a lot more to do with federalizing power over elections and included a provision supporting D.C. statehood, something that clearly makes the vote safer — and it seems like an odd pivot. That’s not even getting to the fact that none of this involves hacking our elections and none of it is being done at the behest of Republicans. Furthermore, nothing thus far proposed by the Democrats would make us safer
It sounds great to the liberal base, though, so don’t expect Bernie or Pelosi to stop. In fact, you’re likely to see a lot more liberals use this as an ideological battering ram. Russian interference! Election tampering! The Kremlin’s going after Biden the same way they did Hillary!
The Russia narrative is like Frankenstein’s monster. Zap enough electricity through it and you can make it walk again.
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