An obscure story in the Russian official news service attributed (falsely) a Wikileaked statement by a journalist to Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal, one of the bogey-men of the Right, seeming to indict Hillary Clinton for her conduct regarding BENGHAZI!. Once the "error" was noted, the site tookit down …
… but then Donald Trump gave a speech …
'At a rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke while holding a document in his hand. He told the assembled crowd that it was an email from Blumenthal, whom he called “sleazy Sidney.”
“This just came out a little while ago,’’ Trump said. “I have to tell you this.” And then he read the words from my article.
“He’s now admitting they could have done something about Benghazi,’’ Trump said, dropping the document to the floor. “This just came out a little while ago.”
The crowd booed and chanted, “Lock her up!”'
So who in the Trump camp is feeding him "erroneous" (but oh-so-inflammatory) stories from state Russian news? And how are those stories then being passed, uncritically, to Trump's supporters, who take them as gospel and as more proof that "Crooked Hillary" should be thrown in jail?
And why, one must continue to ask, do the Russians so seem to want Trump to win (or, if he loses, want his supporters to reject Clinton's legitimacy as President)?
Dear Mr. Trump, I am not Sidney Blumenthal
How the Republican nominee for president pushed Russian propaganda about Benghazi to American voters.
