Just when you think Marco Rubio can’t go any lower he stoops to this, defending Russian shills against the interests of the United States. just innocent victims taking their $100k a week and not asking questions.
History will look back on this era as one of the most perverse in American political history.
Source: New Republic
Senator Marco Rubio doesn’t think that Russia paying off right-wing influencers is a big deal.
The ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was asked on Fox News Thursday about the Justice Department revelation that several conservative commentators were paid by assets of the Russian government to produce propaganda and disinformation. Rubio defended the influencers, calling them “victims.”
“We are talking about preexisting political opinions in the United States. These are preexisting political opinions that have existed well before any Russian engagement or involvement or what have you,” Rubio said to Sean Hannity. “These people that they say that were being funded by the secret donor that was hiding their true identity, they already had these opinions, they already believed in these things.”
“They legitimately believe in the views that they’re espousing,” Rubio added. “They were victims, they were targets of a fraud in which someone posing as just a regular investor had Russian money behind them.”
Rubio is joining his fellow conservatives in defending the commentators at Tenet Media, which the DOJ revealed Wednesday was secretly funded by Russian state media employees in “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” These influencers included Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Lauren Chen, and Benny Johnson. One right-wing media organization, Blaze Media, has already fired Chen as a result of the indictment.
And as the New Republic notes, Rubio is echoing what other Republicans are also saying, like Matt Gaetz, pundits like Ben Shapiro, and even Trump himself.
