The Russia-Trump collusion narrative 2.0 appears to be quickly falling apart.
The Department of Justice indicted two Russians last week for alleging trying to influence the 2024 election apparently in favor of Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.
Blaze Media cut ties with “conservative” influencer Lauren Chen after she was referenced in the indictment, Semafor reported.
But Chen had been saying some pretty negative things about Trump, of late.
The Canadian-born Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan, together co-founded Tenet Media, which Semefor described as “a previously obscure media company that paid eye-popping sums to right-wing influencers to produce videos that echoed Russian propaganda and other right-wing talking points, according to an indictment.”
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The AP reported that the DOJ’s indictment, though not listing Tenet by name, calls it a Tennessee-based company whose “description exactly matches” Tenet.
The Washington Post also pointed out that “a quote from the company’s YouTube channel in the indictment describing it as a ‘a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues’ [suggests] the business is Tenet Media.”
Incongruently, the AP and the Post (to a lesser degree) suggested that the $10 million provided by the Russians was intended to help Trump and other promote Russian talking points.
But what has Chen been communicating about Trump?
Is Russia colluding to hurt Trump’s chances?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
On Aug. 27, Chen accused Trump of “going weak on crime, immigration, abortion, plus still pandering to zionists, theres plans to bring in Democrats to his cabinet. There are MANY issues people are complaining about.”
Nope. I’m not a ome-issue person. Trump is going weak on crime, immigration, abortion, plus still pandering to zionists, theres plans to bring in Democrats to his cabinet. There are MANY issues people are complaining about.
If the support of actual rightiengers matters so much,…
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) August 27, 2024
On July 23, she accused Trump of being too supportive of Israel and criticized someone who planned to vote for him based on it as displaying “not even dual loyalty though lmao, it’s singular loyalty and it ain’t to America.”
“It’s not even dual loyalty though lmao, it’s singular loyalty and it ain’t to America.”
— Lauren Chen in late July 2024 pic.twitter.com/icebKA65PF
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 5, 2024
On Aug. 26 Chen announced she was “done” with Trump due to his stance on abortion.
I supported Trump when he said he wanted to leave it as a state’s issue. That’s… fine.
But saying you would go OUT OF YOUR WAY to veto an abortion ban? That you’d potentially use your executive power to overturn Congressional legislation & the will of the people??
No. I’m…
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) August 26, 2024
None of this would seem directed at trying to help him become the 47th president.
Social media influencer Ashley St. Clair highlighted this.
“Chen has encouraged Republicans to withhold their vote for Trump for not being ‘conservative’ and ‘pro-life’ enough, she has advocated against the 19th Amendment, and said Hamas rioters on college campuses were being arrested for ‘free speech,’” St. Clair posted on X.
Asked on a recent podcast, if comments made by Chen about repealing the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, is for the purpose to make conservatives look “dumb and offensive” and hurt their election chances, St. Clair responded, “I believe so.”
“I don’t think it’s organic at all,” but manufactured, she argued.
A DOJ indictment suggests that Lauren Chen is an alleged Russian agent who is said to have accepted upwards of $10 million to start Tenet Media & push divisive political rhetoric / Russian propaganda in the US
Chen has encouraged Republicans to withhold their vote for Trump for… pic.twitter.com/0CcKmtmQHj
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) September 4, 2024
Trump supporter San Francisco tech billionaire David Sacks also addressed Chen’s efforts during his “All In” podcast last week.
“Lauren Chen has been putting out a lot of tweets explaining to people that they should vote against Trump,” Sacks said.
“She’s been promoting a strange and almost fanatical idea that we should repeal the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. No one in the conservative movement seriously thinks this,” he added.
.@DavidSacks talks about Tenet Media’s Lauren Chen’s anti-Trump posts, highlighting the repeated false claims of Russian interference in U.S. elections such as the Steele Dossier, the Russiagate hoax, Hamilton 68, and the false claim that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian… pic.twitter.com/ltosi0AjQm
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 6, 2024
Sacks noted that people like St. Clair and Mike Cernovich have been calling her out sensing “something’s not right here. This seems like an op. Like these positions don’t really make any sense. It seems like she’s just causing mischief.”
“So the place to start here is to recognize that if the Russians were paying Tenet Media to put out content. That content was actually anti-Trump. It was trying to get people to vote against Trump. So I think the place you have to start is by asking the question, ‘Why would Vladmir Putin want to get Kamala Harris elected?’” Sacks continued.
He pointed out that Putin endorsed Harris last week, and he could see why because she is the weaker candidate.
Russia didn’t invade Ukraine on Trump’s watch, but during the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration and during the Barack Obama-Joe Biden administration before that.
So it would appear, Russia-Trump collusion 2.0 doesn’t hold water, as the first version in 2016 did not.
Moscow isn’t trying to help Trump — it would seem they support Harris.
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