Looking back and realizing how many of my contacts in right-wing world on social media and in real life were trying to sell me the WH "echo chamber conspiracy" idea about the Obama alums setting up an outside "echo chamber" war room. This is worth noting in one important way. /1
This is important not because of me (because, for all my joking with you, I'm no one particularly special) but because it says this wasn't just an internal memo. It was meant to be a template to be used by supporters of the White House in attacking any criticism - or critics. /2
And yet, even at my level of limited interaction with people in the world of Beltway drama, hundreds of miles from DC, I saw this entire story being flogged by multiple people in various places who were trying to convince me of it. Which means they got it from the WH. /3
FWIW, I pushed back on ppl who raised this. I *do* believe that Rhodes and the Obama NSC created an "echo chamber" - as Rhodes admitted, duh - but I never believed that it turned into a formal, anti-Trump info network. But that message was consistent from Trump supporters. /4
So it's more than just some dumb memo that some guys in the Trump NSC put together instead of, you know, working to protect US security. It was also something that was clearly disseminated to conservatives out in the bloodstream in hopes it would get traction. Stupid. /5x
