You Really Believe That?

     Overriding the fact that Rep. Stefanik sees “no quid pro quo” in the president’s statement is that she seems to believe the nonsense Ukraine server conspiracy theory. She says,“Whether Ukraine had any part in 2016, I think we still haven’t gotten to the bottom fully of the complexity of the meddling in our election in 2016.” Yes, as far as that country goes, we have. Tom Bossert, President Trump’s former national security adviser, says the idea Ukraine was involved in the hack, “Has no validity” and "It’s not only a conspiracy theory, it’s completely debunked.”

     In the call to President Zelensky, Trump says, “ I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it… The server, they say Ukraine has it.” This refers to the theory Bossert spoke of. It goes that the DNC hacked itself and fabricated the evidence that blames Russia for it. Needless to say, Russian trolls and bots are keen to push this idea. Why the president or a representative on House Intelligence is open to it is a mystery. Those who believe in this alternate reality posit the server is in Ukraine. The founder of Crowdstrike that investigated the hack, who is a Russian-born American citizen, becomes Ukrainian. Seth Rich, a DNC staffer killed by random violence, makes an appearance in some iterations.

     I’d really love to see Rep. Stefanik clarify what she meant by meddling vis a vis Ukraine. We’ve come to expect the president to take the word of foreign governments over the intelligence community. I give our congresswoman credit for not taking this nonsense seriously. Is she just doing a shout out to those who do?