Russian President Vladimir Putin made a shocking statement statement On Wednesday, Biden said he would prefer President Joe Biden to be reelected over Donald Trump because he is “more experienced and more predictable.”
While social media disinformation from bots was the primary means of interfering in the past two presidential elections, Putin has turned to a new tool: gaslighting America with his voice.
gaslighting, according to In Psychology Today, “It’s insidious manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting…are fed false information that they know to be true, and often question themselves.” I’ll start holding you.”
In other words, this is a sophisticated form of lying, done in psychological bank shots designed to disrupt us, our memories, and our sense of internal order in the world. Fortunately, lies and gaslighting don’t work if we recognize and expose them for what they are.
We know who Putin is. He is a tyrant who imprisoned and murdered his most powerful political opponent, Alexei Navalny, at the age of 47 in a prison colony in Siberia. Putin is a foreign meddler interfered with our elections Trump vs. Hillary Clinton in 2016, and again in 2016. 2020 Trump vs. Biden.
President Putin has not changed his attitude. He now does not like President Biden, the world leader who thwarted President Putin’s main goal by unifying NATO behind Ukraine. “Conquest” In Ukraine.
No, President Putin wants President Trump to win. The reason is obvious. President Trump said twice last week that if elected, he would tell Putin to do this.whatever he wants” To all NATO countries that do not pay their share of defense costs.
That’s more music to President Putin’s ears than any of Tchaikovsky’s violin concertos.
So when Putin says he prefers Biden, what you hear is not what you receive. Rather, it is a monumental head fake designed to make us lose our footing in a reality-based world.
Then there’s another hidden question: Are we witnessing early signs of “Trump-Russia collusion 2024”? According to the Associated Press, President Trump said, “Immediately… welcomed [Putin’s] “This is a ‘great tribute’ to him,” he said in a statement at a campaign rally Wednesday night.
Trump welcomes Putin’s support for Trump’s opponent? Now we are all Alice in Wonderland.
The two have carried on a “bromance” for years. In Helsinki in 2018, President Trump famously I accepted President Putin’s words. When President Putin denied charges that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, President Trump said in 2022 that the U.S. intelligence community would praise About the powerful people in Russia when the Russian army invaded Ukraine.
President Trump seems to think Americans are too loose to accept at face value that he sincerely believes that Putin’s blessing is a curse on Biden rather than pure political manipulation.
Does President Trump’s profession of delighting in Putin’s presumed preferences seem out of place as a needy, narcissistic man who likes anyone who likes him and attacks anyone who is disloyal? Remember what President Trump did before his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in 2019? said The dictator “likes me,” so “why shouldn’t I like him?” Trump said some good things in 2020 about QAnon: “Because they like me so much.”
politiko report Last year, Trump said he “really enjoyed President Putin’s praise.” President Trump, who is pleased with President Putin’s praise of Biden, also appears to be a bit contradictory to the “president-elect.”who comes after If they oppose him, from judges to prosecutors to the vice president.
In politics, timing says a lot. The day after the Biden campaign released this document, we received Putin’s spectacular “endorsement” for Biden and a completely out-of-character response from President Trump. statement: “Donald Trump just gave Vladimir Putin the best Valentine’s Day present possible: his pinky promise to give Putin the green light to mow down his European allies if he’s elected president. Putin’s announcement of his support for Biden 24 hours later appears to be a time-limited political countermeasure clearly intended to weaken his rhetoric.
In fact, it’s not unreasonable to think of Putin’s bizarre declaration as a coordinated campaign tactic between Trump and Russia, especially given Trump’s quickly revealed attempts to spin Putin’s statements against Biden.
Yes, Virginia, we’ve seen this movie before — Putin working with Trump to elect Trump as a Republican-led state senate committee report It is confirmed that it happened in 2016.
All we need to break out of the endless loop that Trump and Putin have put us in is a firm grounding in the facts. In the months leading up to the election, we can continue to recognize and express the truth about Trump and Putin’s long-standing partnership in opposition to Ukraine’s self-determination and American democracy.
It is up to us to expose and reject Putin-Trump’s attempts to gaslight and interfere in our elections.
Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator who currently serves as a federal prosecutor’s attorney. Lawyers defending American democracy.
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