Thread by @NineOfCupsNM

THREAD. Let's examine Bernie Sanders' campaign decisions in light of what we now know about the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 election, shall we?

Political consultant Tad Devine collaborated with Paul Manafort (have you heard of him?) from 2005-10 on behalf of Putin puppet Viktor Yanukovych's campaigns for Prime Minister and then President of Ukraine. politico.com/gallery/2014/0…

Yanukovych had first run in 2004. His campaign was famous for poisoning his opponent, Viktor Yushchenko... independent.co.uk/news/people/vi…

...and also for its brazen electoral fraud, after which the election was invalidated. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews…

In Yanukovych's 2010 campaign, Manafort and Devine deployed the slogan "Lock Her Up!" against candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, who was subsequently imprisoned by Yanukovych, an act condemned worldwide as political persecution. crooksandliars.com/2018/02/worst-…

In February 2014, Manafort and Devine's client Yanukovych literally left office over the bloody corpses of of pro-democracy protesters killed by his security forces. bbc.com/news/magazine-…

In 2019, Yanukovych was found guilty of high treason against Ukraine for asking Russia's Vladimir Putin to send troops into Ukraine.
sg.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-senten…

In June 2014, Tad Devine returned to Ukraine and work with Manafort on re-branding Yanukovych's political party under a new name. washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/…

The 2014 project included Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence operative currently under indictment by the SCO and apparently in hiding in Russia. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Five months later, in November 2014, Tad Devine joined Bernie Sanders' exploratory committee, indicating that he intended to convince Sanders to run as a Democrat. washingtonpost.com/news/post-poli…

"“Tad was super f--king organized,” said one person who attended [the meeting to persuade Sanders to run]. “There had been a ton of thought that had gone into this.”" 🤔politico.com/magazine/story…

Devine made MILLIONS. "[U]nlike Clinton, [Sanders] did not cap how much his consultants could earn in commissions ... That has meant big payouts for the firm of senior strategist Tad Devine, which has produced the bulk of the campaign’s ads[.]" washingtonpost.com/politics/sande…

In spite of being paid eight figures, Devine didn't even give Sanders his own campaign slogan. 😂 He recycled "A Future To Believe In" from his earlier work for pro-Putin Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

https://twitter.com/razingarizona/status/1074831787954565120

On June 9, 2016, the Russians met with the Trump campaign at the infamous Trump Tower meeting. vox.com/2018/2/26/1696…

Also on June 9, 2016, Sanders met with President Obama re: his anticipated exit from the Democratic primary now that Hillary Clinton had secured enough delegates for the nomination. nytimes.com/2016/06/10/us/…

*At the same time* as the Trump Tower and Obama/Sanders meetings, Sanders surrogate Michael Moore was meeting with Russian asset Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. #KremlinRushWeek dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-…

(Paul Manafort had reportedly been there a couple of months earlier.) theguardian.com/us-news/2018/n…

The Monday after Moore's meeting with Assange, Sanders surprised everyone by refusing to withdraw from the primary, announcing that he would “take our campaign ... into the convention.” His surrogates hinted at secrets that would end Clinton's campaign.
nytimes.com/2016/06/13/us/…

Two weeks later, Russian trolls began pushing hashtags related to Clinton's supposed pending indictment. The SCO indictment of the IRA details how Russian disinformation efforts went into high gear in mid-June. See Paragraph 50 and onward: justice.gov/file/1035477/d….

In July 2017, Sanders admitted that his campaign knew that Russia was trying to stoke intra-party divisions, but they did nothing to warn anyone - in short, that they knowingly relied on the assistance of a hostile foreign adversary during the primary.
shakesville.com/2017/07/i-pres…

Fast forward to Feb 17, 2018: the SCO released an indictment alleging that Russians “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton ... and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump[.]” usatoday.com/story/news/pol…

On February 21, 2018, Bernie "The Best Defense Is A Good Offense" Sanders publicly blamed Hillary Clinton for "for not doing more to stop the Russian attack on the last presidential election." politico.com/story/2018/02/…

"In doing so, Sanders and his former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, presented a series of self-serving statements that were not accurate, and that track with efforts by Trump and his supporters to undermine the credibility of the Mueller probe." politico.com/story/2018/02/…

In March 2018, as public concern about Russian interference mounted, Sanders tried a different tack, dismissing it as "a distraction." Michael Moore chimed in to defend vote suppression by framing skipping the polls as “an act of civil disobedience." theguardian.com/us-news/2018/m…

So, two U.S. strategists work for a pro-Putin Ukrainian, then each go to work for U.S. presidential campaigns which are given a huge assist by Russian hacking and disinfo against Hillary Clinton, whom Putin despises.
shakesville.com/2017/03/the-mo…

Deep cynicism, indeed. washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-b…

Breaking: 👀 nbcnews.com/politics/2020-…

@threadreaderapp please unroll