The opening paragraphs of the reports by two of the largest and most reputable newspapers in the nation are amazingly similar.
A sprawling report released Tuesday by a Republican-controlled Senate panel that spent three years investigating Russia’s 2016 election interference laid out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian government officials and other Russians, including some with ties to the country’s intelligence services.
The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 American election to help Mr. Trump become president, and some members of Mr. Trump’s circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.
President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Russia’s government and intelligence services.
In its nearly 1,000-page report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee found that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that purported election interference emanating from Ukraine was of greater concern.
Both provide a damning indictment of the sham campaign of a later-to-be-impeached president who, nevertheless, sits behind the Resolute Desk sheepishly promoting cans of beans, shamelessly telling tens of thousands of lies, and consistently calling the most sordid scandal in modern U.S. election history a “hoax,” “a big Dem hoax,” a “witch hunt,” “a bogus Russiagate” and the always-convenient, always at-the-ready “fake news.”
In his “Bipartisan Senate report…,” Joe Gandelman provides a summary of the Panel’s findings.
But what may be just as interesting, and a sign of the times, is the contrast in how this bi-partisan report is being covered by a partisan media.
These are the Times’ and Post’s headlines, respectively:
G.O.P.-Led Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia.
Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds.
And some more, from today’s memeorandum.com news aggregator:
NBC News: Bipartisan Senate report describes 2016 Trump campaign eager to accept help from foreign power.
CNN: Bipartisan Senate report details Trump campaign contacts with Russia in 2016, adding to Mueller findings.
New York Magazine: Bipartisan Senate Report Shows How Trump Colluded With Russia in 2016,
Associated Press: Senate panel finds Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.
The Week: Bipartisan Senate committee strongly implies Trump lied to Mueller.
Law & Crime: GOP-Led Senate Intel Committee’s Report Reveals ‘Gold Mine’ of Evidence on Trump Campaign’s Russia Contacts.
Axios: Senate report finds Manafort passed campaign data to Russian intelligence officer.
Forbes: No ‘Hoax’: Bipartisan Senate Report Confirms Russian 2016 Role, Putin Ordered DNC Hack, More.
And here are some of the “other” headlines:
Townhall: Senate Intel Cmte: No Trump-Russia Collusion and the FBI Gave ‘Unjustifiable Credence’ to Dem-Funded Dossier.
The Daily Caller: Senate Intel Panel Found ‘Absolutely No Evidence’ Of Collusion, Faced Roadblocks In Probe Of Steele Dossier.
Republicanleader.senate.gov: McConnell on Intelligence Committee’s Investigation: Our Adversaries Want to Undermine Our System of Government.
Breitbart: Tom Cotton: Senate Intelligence Committee Report ‘Puts to Bed’ Claims of Collusion.
And what are Trump and his puppet at the Justice Department doing?
They have continued to spin, discredit and distort Special Counsel Mueller’s work, picking his investigation apart; they have tried to “recast the president as the victim of politically motivated national security officials in the Obama administration” and are conducting their own vindictive counter-investigations – fake “post-mortems” – including a possible “Durham October surprise” hoping to turn the tables on Democrats just in time for the November elections.
At Bloomberg, in his The Senate Report on Trump and Russia Is a Triumph for Truth” Timothy L. O’Brien wisely writes:
Russia’s threats to American elections and national security are ongoing, and that’s another reason the Senate report is valuable. Because facts are fundamental, and it’s impossible to make good decisions without them. Mother Nature has reminded us of this truth with the coronavirus pandemic. The Senate’s report teaches the same lesson in its assessment of Russia, the Trump administration and White House propaganda.
