Bernie Sanders briefed by US officials that Russia is trying to aid his campaign
 

Candidate has denounced reported efforts to interfere on his behalf, saying: ‘I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend’


US officials have told Bernie Sanders that Russia is trying to help his campaign, prompting the frontrunner in the Democratic race to strongly condemn any interference.

Republican Donald Trump and US lawmakers have also been informed about the Russian assistance to Sanders, said a report in the Washington Post, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter and first broke the news.

It was not clear what form the Russian assistance had taken, the paper added.

Facebook said it had seen no evidence of Russian support for Sanders on its platform.

However, the Vermont senator denounced the reported efforts by Moscow to interfere with the 2020 election on his behalf.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend. He is an autocratic thug who is attempting to destroy democracy and crush dissent in Russia,” Sanders said of the Russian president.

“Let’s be clear, the Russians want to undermine American democracy by dividing us up and, unlike the current president, I stand firmly against their efforts, and any other foreign power that wants to interfere in our election.”

Sanders also suggested some of the online vitriol frequently blamed on his supporters may be coming from Russia. “Some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters,” Sanders said.

The news follows similar warnings from the intelligence community that Russia has also sought to boost Trump’s re-election campaign. On Friday Trump sought to play down those developments and revive old grievances in claiming that Democrats are determined to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency.

Trump claimed on Twitter that Democrats were pushing a “misinformation campaign” in hopes of politically damaging him.

Intelligence officials told lawmakers in a classified briefing last week that Russia is meddling in the election with the hope of getting Trump re-elected, according to officials familiar with the briefing.

The fresh intelligence warnings about Russian interference came in what has been a tumultuous stretch for the intelligence community.

A day after the 13 February briefing to the House intelligence committee, Trump berated the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in a meeting at the White House. Then this week, Trump abruptly announced that Maguire would be replaced by Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist who also will hold the job in an acting capacity.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...a-aid-campaign



Bernie reacting like a true patriot :clap1:

The Putin's bitch in the White House showing his complete and utter moral bankruptcy.
The orange one and his far right brothers are Moscow's puppets

It wouldn't surprise me if the whole 'toxic Bernie supporters' narrative is just Russian interference. Back in 2016, we were constantly banning Russian accounts that tried to post fake news on here when it came to both Trump and Brexit.

Putin ultimately wants to keep Trump in power and Bernie will destroy him in a straight election. Expect a lot of bull**** like this to come out over the next year and those Right Wing traitors in the senate are all too glad to let it happen since they've voted down three proposals to combat Russian interference in the election. Republicans will gladly allow interference as long as it benefits them.

Russia sure are busy ain't they. Trump, Brexit, Boris, Tulsi, now Bernie!!!1111

Just because Bernie says he doesn't want any help from Putin, doesn't mean that he doesn't welcome it ... The news agencies are terrible but people are very naive too

Bernie is clean as a whistle which is why most of the attempts to stir up bad press against him has been so weak. He has consistently kept the same platform and beliefs throughout his career, he has supported equal rights and societal change long before the other politicians considered it in vogue to do so and there's absolutely nothing dodgy about his character otherwise we'd have heard it by now since the US media are determined to derail his momentum in any way they can.

He ain't gonna accept help from Russia when he has kept a clean sheet all his career.

Putin's a fan of Divide and Conquer, it's his main tactic.

Yes Bernie keep that integrity and good morals :clap1:

there are so many games being played, it's difficult to know anything about what is going on. Russia thrive on creating confusion and division and they are doing that beautifully. The point being that a democracy is vulnerable to manipulation purely because it is a democracy. Every election/vote across the world is now vulnerable and that is a basic reality that we are all going to have to deal with going forward. No result is ever safe.

Yes but USA will never have
a Communist / Socialist President.

This :clap1:

Well that's on them if they want to keep a orange maniac in the white house!, Least we know Bernie tried :hee:.