If you read this feed, you know what Kennedy's doing here.
There are *four* Kremlin-born conspiracy theories involving Ukraine: CROWDSTRIKE, BURISMA, BLACK LEDGER, UKRAINE-CHALUPA-DNC.
Dr. Hill/@chucktodd are discussing CROWDSTRIKE; Kennedy is referring to the last of the four.
There are *four* Kremlin-born conspiracy theories involving Ukraine: CROWDSTRIKE, BURISMA, BLACK LEDGER, UKRAINE-CHALUPA-DNC.
Dr. Hill/@chucktodd are discussing CROWDSTRIKE; Kennedy is referring to the last of the four.
@chucktodd 1/ Until @chucktodd and others in media get down *cold* all four Kremlin-bred conspiracy theories—including what false/misleading evidence and/or testimony they rely upon—Kennedy will keep going on TV to be met only with shock rather than an *absolute demolition of his argument*.
@chucktodd 2/ I'm serious here—this is the most significant political story of this generation, and half the story is the fraudulent defense that half the nation's political class will mount to try to end the biggest scandal in US history. If you're on TV, you must know that defense *cold*.
@chucktodd 3/ I'm very familiar with the false, fradulent, or misleading material/testimonial evidence connected to all four of these Kremlin-bred conspiracy theories, and Kennedy is lying *even* about what false, fraudulent, or misleading material/testimonial evidence support the theories.
@chucktodd 4/ I'm *glad* that Sen. Kennedy is saying which articles he's been reading; now journalists need to read those articles themselves so they can *contest* these risibly false Kremlin-and-GOP talking points rather than merely act (rather emptily) scandalized whenever they hear them.
@chucktodd 5/ But it goes beyond this, and I think the way Chuck handled this situation shows that he understands that. Journalists need to know not just how far outside the mainstream candidate Trump's Ukraine policy was in 2016, but also how many heads of state hard- or soft-endorsed him.
@chucktodd 6/ Journalists must also find Trump's responses to being endorsed in 2016 by the presidents of Hungary and the Czech Republic, as it's relevant to his mental state when he hears a foreign politician say something nice about a U.S. politician. When it was him, he was fine with it.
@chucktodd 7/ Unless Trump can show he called Hungary and the Czech Republic corrupt and worthy of US government investigation because their presidents endorsed him when he was a candidate, he can't claim he believed Ukraine corrupt because certain Ukrainians said nice things about Clinton.
@chucktodd 8/ Step 1 to counter Kennedy: force him to answer questions on *individual* conspiracy theories, and *use law enforcement terminology* in doing so. For instance, Kennedy knows that if there's "no reasonable suspicion" the "black ledger" was forged, there's nothing to investigate.
@chucktodd 9/ It's literally *not a thing* in America to say—as Kennedy does about the Kremlin's conspiracy theories—"Well, what's the harm in investigating?" Under *our* justice system—as opposed to the Kremlin's—"reasonable suspicion" is required first. Check Kennedy's bio: he knows this.
@chucktodd 10/ So the first question for Kennedy to answer is, what does he dislike so much about *our* justice system—and *like* so much about Russia's—that he wants investigations to commence without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing? Because he has *none* on at least 3 of his theories.
