US conservative commentators say they are ‘victims’ of alleged Russian disinformation campaign
US conservative commentators have responded to the unsealed US Department of Justice indictment that accuses “Two RT Employees [of] Covertly Funding and Directing US Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests”.
The release does not name the company. It says that it is “a Tennessee-Based Online Content Creation Company”, and refers to it as “Company 1”.
The Guardian’s Andrew Roth reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration has accused Russia of carrying out a sustained disinformation campaign targeted at American voters and meant to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.
In its most direct accusation of election meddling to date, the US government accused the state-financed RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and other Russian state-backed media of spearheading a covert campaign of disinformation promoting pro-Kremlin views laundered through their online and television networks.
The treasury department also sanctioned the RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and nine other employees of the network over the aggeled campaign of disinformation around the elections. Simonyan is a “central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts” the department alleged.
Conservative podcaster Tim Pool posted a statement on Twitter / X “regarding allegations and the DOJ Indictment”, saying, “Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.”
My statement regarding allegations and the leaked DOJ Indictment
Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims. I cannot speak for anyone else at the company as to what they do or to what they are…
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) September 4, 2024
Conservative commentator and YouTuber Benny Johnson said an hour ago, “A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme”:
A statement on the leaked DOJ indictment today:
A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s…
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 4, 2024
Key events
Summary
Here is a summary of today’s developments:
-
A number of high-profile, conservative influencers in the US have said they are “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, after the Biden administration accused Moscow of carrying out a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.
-
A top strategist to the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, will brief Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign on Labour’s election-winning strategy, according to a report. Deborah Mattinson, Starmer’s polling expert who was his director of strategy while he was leader of the opposition, will reportedly travel to Washington DC next week.
-
A fundraising event for some of the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, aiming to prevent the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump, was scheduled to take place today at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey – but has been postponed indefinitely.
-
Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday to prepare for next week’s presidential debate, according to multiple reports. The US vice-president and Democratic nominee for president will spend the final days leading up to the debate on 10 September in Pittsburgh, the reports say, where she will also hold informal meetings with voters in the battleground of Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.
-
National polls for the US presidential race have been upended ever since Kamala Harris took over from Joe Biden to run against Donald Trump. While Biden was trailing the Republican former president nationally and in many crucial swing states, Harris has gained about three points in national polls since becoming the nominee. The Guardian’s poll tracker assesses polls over a rolling 10-day period. It now has Harris leading nationally by about two points.
-
A Republican anti-Donald Trump group is targeting disaffected Republicans and conservative-leaning independents in a new $11.5m ad campaign that will play in key battleground states. The ad buy, by Republican Voters Against Trump, targets voters in swing states and features former Trump voters explaining why they plan to vote for Harris in November.
-
Trump appeared in a town hall event hosted by Sean Hannity, during which no questions were taken from the audience. Trump repeated false claims about Harris’s stance on fracking, about the US border and immigration, and about Harris saying she had a job at McDonald’s, a claim Trump has said is false. The Harris campaign has confirmed that Harris worked at a McDonald’s in the summer of 1983.
That town hall has now finished, and Hannity appears not to have allowed enough time for questions from the audience. Here is how the event ended:
LMAO Hannity made it all the way through the first installment of his “town hall” with Trump without leaving time for a single audience question pic.twitter.com/c86KY2VQtv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 5, 2024
He says that questions will be aired tomorrow night.
Trump talks about a recent bugbear of his: Kamala Harris saying that she worked at McDonald’s. In a speech two weeks ago in North Carolina, Harris said she had worked at McDonald’s in her youth and understood the struggle of low-wage work, and that she worked as California’s attorney general to lower drug prices and to go after predatory lending in the housing market.
The Poynter institute / PolitiFact’s check on Harris saying she worked there, which Trump has implied is false:
Harris has said in presidential campaign ads and other public appearances that she worked at McDonald’s while she was in college. Her campaign told PolitiFact that Harris worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, in the summer of 1983. Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1986.
Hannity is now asking how this year is different from 2016.
If 2016 was about the forgotten man and the forgotten woman, how is 2024 different, Hannity asks Trump.
Trump says, “it’s not so different”. He repeats the claim that the US is being laughed at by the rest of the world.
He repeats his slogan, “Make America great again”.
Trump then added to those comments, responding to Hannity adding to his mention of the Georgia shooting saying, “restrictions have never been so tight”, and bringing up the Trump assassination attempt:
Trump responds to Hannity bringing up the school shooting in Georgia by saying, “it’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons. And we’re gonna make it better and we’re gonna heal our world.”
Trump then touts his endorsement from Orban. pic.twitter.com/897cCGoQlG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 5, 2024
Trump’s response earlier when Hannity brought up the mass shooting in Georgia.
Two students and two teachers were killed at a Georgia high school on Wednesday in a mass shooting authorities say was committed by a 14-year-old male student at the school.
Here is our story:
The town hall is happening in at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Trump is again talking about Harris’s stance on fracking, and his support for the practice. Kamala Harris will not seek to ban fracking if she becomes US president, she has said, and campaign officials have confirmed.
Fracking is an important issue in Pennsylvania. Here is our reporting:
Hannity asks Trump about Fox proposing a debate between Harris and Trump.
Donald Trump said in August he would be willing to debate Kamala Harris on the friendly environs of Fox News in September – but the vice-president has not signed on to what would be a switch-up.
The former president had previously agreed to appear on ABC News and debate Joe Biden a second time this year before the president ended his re-election campaign.
He has since again agreed to debate Harris next week on the ABC:
Trump is again griping about Biden dropping out of the race, and Harris replacing him as the Demcorats’ nominee.
Trump repeats false claims that Harris “wants to fracking”. He then notes that she has recently said she does not support a total ban on fracking – this follows similar messaging recently that seeks to paint Harris as flip-flopping on certain issues.
Trump talks about Tim Walz, who famously called Trump and his supporters “weird”.
Trump says, referring to Walz, there’s something, “weird with that guy, he’s a weird guy…we’re other things perhaps, we’re not weird”.
Trump falsely claims that Harris wants open borders, that the US borders is the “worst in the history of the world”.
Trump again specifically mentions immigrants from the Congo. Here is my colleague David Smith on similar comments from Trump’s interview with Elon Musk:
The Department of Justice indictment says that the company it calls US Company 1, “describes itself as a ‘network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues’.”
This is the same way that a company called Tenet media describes itself on its website: “Tenet Media is a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”
The Tennessean reports that, “The indictment states the Tennessee-based company was incorporated around 19 January, 2022, which matches records from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office. The indictment says the company applied to the Tennessee Department of State to conduct business on 22 May, 2023.”
The Guardian has contacted Tenet for comment. The company has not released a statement or commented on the allegations in the Department of Justice indictment, which does not name the company. It has not responded to other media organisations’ requests for comment, including the New York Times and CBS, according to their reporting.