Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is before the Senate Judiciary Committee today discussing Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s spy operation into the Trump campaign that was all spurred by a piece of Democrat-funded political opposition research called the Trump dossier. The Clinton campaigned retained the services of Fusion GPS, who then hired ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele to compile dirt on Trump. It was flawed, unverified, and used to go after Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official, and the campaign itself. Michael Flynn would later be engulfed in the collusion delusion as well. It was never verified. This was not an accident and yet, people in the liberal media desperate to find some relief from their emotional walloping after 2016 bought it hook, line, and sinker.
It took two government reports, the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on Crossfire Hurricane and the FISA abuses under Obama and the Muller report itself, to deliver the kill shots to this fantastical document. And if there is one person who will catalog your bad behavior—journalistically speaking—that’ll be Mr. Drew Holden. He has the Left’s number on their Russian collusion myth peddling. From MSNBC to Newsweek, CNN to The New Yorker, he has all of the greatest hits, some of which venture into tinfoil hat land. Alex Jones and InfoWars are dismissed for their conspiratorial nonsense. Well, there are some characters in this liberal media bubble that have significant platforms that are no different.
@CNN made it a point to bring up the dossier early and often, and frequently led with the most explosive claims. They even attacked @DevinNunes for being rightfully dubious. pic.twitter.com/FMIRuVCDYy
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
One tactic was to bring on elected officials and other “reputable” people to talk up the dossier.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
In retrospect, I’m not sure they picked the most trustworthy folks.
Featuring James Clapper, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, @RepSwalwell and @RepAdamSchiff. pic.twitter.com/jgX5TpTulG
@RepAdamSchiff didn’t exactly cover himself in glory on this one. pic.twitter.com/SgTzZIUKk9
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
And some of CNN’s voices you’ll surely recognize chimed in. Here’s @brianstelter. pic.twitter.com/87FCcqW5Hj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
CNN wasn’t alone. One of the most consistent media voices in all things Russian Collusion has been @NYMag pic.twitter.com/o1waauyTcx
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
Much of NYMag’s discussion was led by @jonathanchait, the same journalist who advanced the theory that perhaps Trump has been a Russian agent since 1987.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
It’s hard not to look at this as similarly conspiratorial at this point. pic.twitter.com/IVdLSSBRJt
But probably the most vociferous cheerleader of the Steele dossier was @maddow, who hyped it at every turn.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
Select screenshots of it are below, but well worth your time is @ErikWemple’s series on this: https://t.co/6tstIIBSsv pic.twitter.com/SjYu5QK59q
Really just a lot from @maddow, including on @MaddowBlog.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
Also another feature from Clapper. pic.twitter.com/LHzF1dzYrO
More from @MSNBC, including having the cofounder of Fusion GPS on to very believably speak to the impeachable standards of Fusion. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/SJF9yE1Z3C
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
And Maddow gets us to one of the original advocates of this theory, @DavidCornDC of Mother Jones. His original reporting kicked off a lot of this firestorm.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
The central allegation is that the POTUS is beholden to our geopolitical enemy. Black helicopters stuff. pic.twitter.com/IY5R48dmwQ
While more outlets than I expected were reasonable about all this, @Newsweek was not one of them. I continue to be mystified at what this paper has become. pic.twitter.com/Xit3rtSlwJ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
@JoyAnnReid’s penchant for conspiracy theories deserves a lot more attention than it receives. pic.twitter.com/aTiNf20Gk7
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
Obligatory @JRubinBlogger mention, featuring “what is remarkable is how accurate the reporting has been on this all along” pic.twitter.com/VyWMFEkdTh
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 20, 2020
These idiots got played. They were wrong. They’ve been proven wrong more times than can be counted on both hands—and yet, they refuse to admit it. They refuse to admit that collusion was a hoax. There has to be some mental malfunction to keep believing in something where there’s no evidence. I mean, seriously, with a plot that big—something would have dropped eons ago. It didn’t. It’ll never happen. Because Russian collusion was never a thing. Every bombshell was neutered hours after publication, the sort of thing that happens to a narrative where no evidence exists. And belief is not evidence. There are more tweets in Mr. Holden’s extensive thread, but these were some of the best listed above. No wonder why some are rightfully calling Trump-Russia collusion one of the biggest if not the biggest journalistic fiascos ever.