Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton was confronted by CNN’s Dana Bash on the subject of Russian interference in American elections, and clapped back by brining up the Hunter Biden laptop which was falsely characterized as Russian disinformation – including, he said on the air, by CNN.
On Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, Bash brought up the developing investigation involving Russian propaganda allegedly being distributed for money on some right wing YouTube channels and on social media accounts of MAGA influencers.
The main right wing YouTube accounts being tied to the investigation are run by TENET Media, which is not mentioned by name in the two indictments handed down in the past week but which saw its principles let go by other conservative media, including The Blaze, according to a report from Semafor.
TENET is “a company that the Justice Department says was being funded by Russian operatives,” said Bash to Cotton. “You sit on the Intelligence Committee. How worried are you that right-wing influencers, people who do have an impact on their constituents, are being funded, either directly or indirectly, by the Russian government in order to make an impact on this election?”
“People should not knowingly take money from the government of Russia or Iran or China or any other adversarial nation to try to influence the election,” said Cotton. “But I also think it’s fair to say that a few memes or videos in the vast sea of political commentary is not going to make much of a difference in this election, nor has it in past elections as well.”
Cotton then argued that something else related to Russia did make a difference.
“What did make a difference in the last election is the lies about Hunter Biden’s laptop that more than four dozen former intelligence officials lied about in the middle of that campaign,” he said. “And most networks, including this one, bought that lie hook, line and sinker. That did make a difference in the election.”
Bash did not dispute the characterization, but said that it seemed like Cotton was trying to “downplay” the significance of Russian President Vladimir Putin “using people like Dave Rubin, whose show you went on in February, as a tool for his propaganda.”
“I’m not downplaying Vladimir Putin’s designs or Xi Jinping’s designs or the ayatollahs’ designs to try to influence our election.,” Cotton replied. “But using money, using money, using money to try to promote memes or videos on the Internet is not exactly going to make a huge difference.”
The conversation continued in that way until they moved on to the next subject.
BASH: I want to turn to a very different topic, and that is something that the Justice Department said this week. They detailed a Russian government effort to stoke divisions in the U.S. using front organizations and social media prominent right-wing influencers like Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, who have ties to TENET Media.
That’s a company that the Justice Department says was being funded by Russian operatives. You sit on the Intelligence Committee. How worried are you that right-wing influencers, people who do have an impact on their constituents, are being funded, either directly or indirectly, by the Russian government in order to make an impact on this election?
COTTON: Well, first off, Dana, we haven’t been in session, so I haven’t seen any intelligence about this matter. I have only seen the allegations I have read in the newspaper.
People should not knowingly take money from the government of Russia or Iran or China or any other adversarial nation to try to influence the election. But I also think it’s fair to say that a few memes or videos in the vast sea of political commentary is not going to make much of a difference in this election, nor has it in past elections as well.
What did make a difference in the last election is the lies about Hunter Biden’s laptop that more than four dozen former intelligence officials lied about in the middle of that campaign. And most networks, including this one, bought that lie hook, line and sinker. That did make a difference in the election.
But I think a few videos or commentaries, which again, you shouldn’t do if you’re out there in the business of commentating on elections, is not going to make a difference in the vast sea of commentary we see.
BASH: It sounds to me like you’re downplaying the fact that Vladimir Putin is using people like Dave Rubin, whose show you went on in February, as a tool for his propaganda.
COTTON: So I’m not downplaying Vladimir Putin’s designs or Xi Jinping’s designs or the ayatollahs’ designs to try to influence our election.
But using money, using money, using money to try to promote memes or videos on the Internet is not exactly going to make a huge difference. Again, you shouldn’t knowingly do that. I don’t know if any of these people knowingly did it.
BASH: Have you — do you know young people who they — some people only get their information from those memes and videos.
COTTON: But, Dana, what really would be catastrophic is if a foreign government, say, hacked into the voter registration system during voting, or hacked into election machines and erased votes, or turned off the electricity in a big city on Election Day.
Those are things that are serious threats. A few videos and memes…
BASH: Are those active threats? Are you worried? Is that…
(CROSSTALK)
COTTON: I am worried about those kind of threats, sure.
BASH: Is that based on what you’re being briefed on?
COTTON: It’s based on the vulnerabilities that all of our infrastructure around the country has. That worries me a lot more than a few videos or memes.
Again, this is the kind of thing that foreign governments like Russia does, and no one should knowingly and winningly partake in it. But it’s really not all that consequential in the grand scheme of things.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
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