Marco Rubio Defends MAGA Influencer ‘Victims’ Of Russian Op — Attacks Media For Pushing Pro-Harris ‘Disinformation’
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) defended the conservative media influencers under scrutiny following Wednesday’s Justice Department’s Russian interference indictment as “victims” who were merely pushing “pre-existing political opinions” and, instead, slammed pro-Harris mainstream media as the real purveyors of pro-Harris “disinformation.”
The DOJ indictment alleges Russian state-owned Russia Today paid $10 million to a Tennessee firm, identified as Tenet Media, to distribute content with concealed Russian messaging in a bid to interfere in the 2024 US election.
Founded in 2022 by Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, Tenet Media employs right-wing influencers like Tim Pool and David Rubin, who call themselves “victims” if the allegations are true. The conservative influencers claim they were misled by Russian media executives.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, Rubio appeared alongside Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) in defense of the influencers.
Moreno blasted the indictment as “a clear violation of the First Amendment” and accused the DOJ of trying to dictate to citizens “what information we’re allowed to see.”
Hannity then asked Rubio what he thought, Rubio replied:
So disinformation is something totally different from what they are going after and describing. Disinformation is when you make up things that aren’t true and you spread it people think they’re true. In this particular case, we are talking about pre-existing political opinions in the United States. These are pre-existing political opinions that have existed well before any Russian engagement or involvement or what have you. One of the indictments that came out yesterday, these people that they say were being funded by the secret donor that was hiding their true identity, they already had these opinions. They already believe in these things. They legitimately believe in the views that they’re espousing.
They were victims. They were targets of a fraud. And when someone posing as just a regular investor had Russian money behind them.
Rubio admitted that interference operations by foreign states were real and “serious.”
As far as the Russians, yeah. And the Chinese and the Iranians and other countries as well. And by the way, my view of it is that this is all very serious and concerning. We need to have our eyes wide open.
He continued to attack mainstream media outlets that he perceived as pushing disinformation to voters in a softball approach to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
I think there’s actually real disinformation being promulgated by some of the editorial rooms of some of the biggest media companies in America, who pretend like Kamala Harris was born on July 24th. When she’s been around, she’s been the vice president. She owns the Biden record and should have answer for that record, has flip flopped on everything that she ran for when she ran for president. And they’re now saying: ‘Oh, you change your mind. Well, that’s fine. Okay. We believe you.’ That’s disinformation and it’s deliberate and it’s designed and it’s been driven over the last five or six weeks in a way that’s been stunning to watch, even by the low journalistic standards that now exist in our country. Stunning.
Watch above on Fox News.
