Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi said Thursday that voters don’t care about Russian interference in U.S. elections.
“This issue is a complete zero,” Taibbi said on the Hill.TV’s “Rising.” “Polls have shown it’s so far down the list of things people care about when they make their voting decisions. I just don’t understand the mindset that thinks this is a winning play.”
Taibbi also questioned the timing of a story from The Washington Post published the day before the Nevada caucus saying Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had been briefed by intelligence officials that Russia was looking to help his campaign as part of efforts to interfere in the Democratic nomination contest.
“I think the remarkable thing about this story is the degree to which they appear to genuinely think it’s going to work,” Taibbi said. “This story very unsubtly came out in The Washington Post the day before the caucus, it was so obvious that even Sanders, who has been shaky on this issue, he even had to point it out. Clearly somebody thought this would have an impact on the caucus and it was a blow out of like historic proportions.”
Taibbi also said that Trump has seen a boost to his approval ratings since “the latest iteration of Russiagate came out.”
“I don’t know who much more evidence they need that people just don’t really care about this issue,” he said.
A day before the Post reported on the Sanders story, The New York Times had reported that House lawmakers were told by U.S. officials last week that Russia was also attempting to interfere in the 2020 election to hep President Trump’s reelection campaign.
Russia interfered in the 2016 election, as documented by former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report last year, which ignited a political firestorm.
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