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Russia Is Already Meddling in the 2018 Election – Here’s Who They’re Targeting This Time

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By The Blaze. According to a report from the Daily Beast, the same Russian intelligence agency behind the cyberattack in the 2016 election is already meddling in the 2018 midterm election. . .

The report said that the alleged hacking attempts were aimed at staffers for Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and used the same tactics that were successful against former Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta.

The attacks involved links sent to the staffers’ email addresses that were made to look like official notices from their websites requesting a password change. The link provided also mimes official email address change websites, but sends the information to hackers.

“We did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks, and we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for elections in the midterm elections,” said [Tom] Burt. . .

“Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable,” McCaskill said to the Daily Beast. “While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully.” (Read more from “Russia Is Already Meddling in the 2018 Election – Here’s Who They’re Targeting This Time” HERE)

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Russians Unsuccessfully Tried to Hack Computers of Democratic Sen. Claire Mccaskill

By NPR. Russian hackers trying to influence the 2018 elections made an unsuccessful attempt to breach the computer system of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of this fall’s most vulnerable Democrats.

The Daily Beast reported that McCaskill is the first known target of the Kremlin’s plot to interfere in this fall’s midterm elections after targeting the U.S. in the 2016 presidential election.

McCaskill has been a critic of Russia and of President Trump — who has at times doubted that any such interference happened at all and decried attempts by special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate as a “witch hunt.” At a press conference last week after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump appeared to believe Putin’s denials over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, though he later tried to walk that back.

In a statement, McCaskill said she “will not be intimidated” by the attempts, which occurred around August 2017.

“Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable,” McCaskill said in a statement. “While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully.” (Read more from “Russians Unsuccessfully Tried to Hack Computers of Democratic Sen. Claire Mccaskill” HERE)

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Bulldozes Another Narrative About Russia

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By Townhall. After months of speculation President Trump would recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea as legitimate, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo bulldozed that narrative during testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday afternoon.

“On the subject of Russia, I want to bring something to your attention right off the bat today. Today the Trump administration is releasing what we’re calling the Crimea Declaration,” Pompeo said.

“I want to show this committee that the United States does not, and will not recognize the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea,” Pompeo continued. “There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.”

Pompeo also said NATO is an “indispensable” part of U.S. national defense and that President Trump’s demand members pay their fair share will only bolster the alliance against Russia.

Pompeo testified about a number of issues and said negotiations with North Korea, despite progress until now, have a long way to go. (Read more from “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Bulldozes Another Narrative About Russia” HERE)

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Pompeo Faces Tough Questions on Russia, North Korea

By ABC News. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fiercely defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy on Capitol Hill Wednesday, facing tough questions from Republican and Democratic senators about North Korea, Russia, Iran, and more.

But it was the divide in U.S. foreign policy between President Trump’s comments and his administration’s actions that underlaid the contentious hearing, with Pompeo at one time seeming to suggest that the administration’s actions mattered more than Trump’s words. He was quick to correct himself later, saying that he misspoke, but blasting what he called Democrats’ “glee” at his mistake and their efforts “to make a political point from that.”

“That’s silliness. This president runs this government. His statements are in fact U.S. policy,” Pompeo declared in a particularly heated exchange with the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey.

It was Pompeo’s first time in front of the committee since President Trump’s historic meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian leader Vladimir Putin – the outcomes of which are both now being called into question. (Read more from “Pompeo Faces Tough Questions on Russia, North Korea” HERE)

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Trump Is Very Concerned About This Possible Russia Decision

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President Donald Trump appeared to want to flip the script on Tuesday tweeting that he is “very concerned” that Russia will be “pushing very hard for Democrats” this fall in the midterm elections.

Trump tweeted, “I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats.”

“They definitely don’t want Trump!” he added.

Trump received a torrent of criticism from members of the media, as well as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, for seeming to be as ready to accept Putin’s denial of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race as the U.S. intelligence community’s findings that it did.

The president, following the meeting, clarified that he has “full faith” in America’s intelligence agencies, including their findings concerning Russian attempts to influence the election.

He noted that he has stated multiple times over the past year that he believes Russia sought to meddle, but he does not believe it changed the outcome.

In an interview with CNBC last Thursday, Trump said, “Getting along with President Putin, getting along with Russia, is positive, not a negative.”

He added, “That being said, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be the worst enemy he’s ever had.”

Trump emphasized the actions he has taken against Putin’s interests.

“Look at the sanctions I threw on. Look at the diplomats I threw out. Look at all of the things that I’ve done,” he said.

The president continued, “Nobody else did what I’ve done. Obama didn’t do it. Obama was a patsy for Russia. He was a total patsy.

“I have been far tougher on Russia than any president in many, many years.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to the president’s assertion that the Russians may help the Democrats this fall by tweeting video footage from the Helsinki summit of Putin saying he wanted Trump to win in 2016. “Let’s go to the video tape (again),” Schumer wrote.

Following the Democrat’s harsh rhetoric toward Trump’s meeting with Putin last week, a 2003 Associated Press photo of Schumer accompanying the Russian president on a visit to New York City circulated widely.

Garrett Graff, writing for Politico, argued that Trump just might be right about the Russians seeking to help the Democrats regain power this November.

“There’s solid geopolitical evidence that boosting the Democrats would be a smart strategy for a foreign actor this fall,” he wrote.

Graff continued, “Vladimir Putin’s goal isn’t—and never was—to help the Republican Party, at least in the long run.”

“Boosting Trump’s presidential campaign was a means to Putin’s end: Weakening the West, and exploiting the seams and divisions of the West’s open democracies to undermine our legitimacy and moral standing.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., agreed with Trump that Putin’s plan is not wedded to a person or a party, but meant to sow chaos.

He wrote, “Putin is pro-Chaos and is an Equal Opportunity Disruptor of the American electoral system.” (For more from the author of “Trump Is Very Concerned About This Possible Russia Decision” please click HERE)

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Nikki Haley Speaks out on Putin Summit and She Does Not Hold Back

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley offered a very harsh statement on relations between the U.S. and Russia, and then spoke out about the president’s controversial summit with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. . .

“How do you feel about some of what he has done here because it is unconventional to basically do some of this, I know this has happened before, especially with Putin, but the way he went about this, he’s taken a lot of shots and criticism back home,” [David] Brody asked. . .

“Well, first of all, we don’t trust Russia,” Haley responded forcefully, “we don’t trust Putin, we never will, they’re never gonna be our friend, that’s just a fact.”

“But what I do think is, whether it’s the president sitting down with Kim [Jong Un], or whether the president sits down with Putin, those are things that have to happen,” she continued. “You can’t get to the end of the other side if you don’t have those conversations.” . . .

Haley defended the Helsinki summit, saying that it “was something that was a long time coming there were a lot of grievances that needed to be aired, there were a lot of challenges that we needed to discuss, and I think the president did that.” (Read more from “Nikki Haley Speaks out on Putin Summit and She Does Not Hold Back” HERE)

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Poll: After Widely-Criticized Russia Week, This Happened to Trump’s Job Approval

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When I wrote last week that President Trump’s capitulatory press conference with Vladimir Putin was a low moment in his tenure thus far, I wasn’t out on a limb. Trump’s equivocations prompted rebukes from scores of Congressional Republicans, as well as critiques from a number of national figures who are typically supporters and allies. Trump’s secret sauce, however, is that the more he’s attacked, the more Republican voters feel compelled to circle the wagons and rally to his defense — hence the polling released last week in which super-majorities of GOP-leaning voters said they approved of his performance with Putin, and share his views on trade wars and tariffs. If it had been Obama at the center of either controversy, Republicans would undoubtedly have been nearly unified in intense opposition, but tribal loyalty is paramount these days. Indeed, for a great many partisan voters, Trump himself is the top “issue” ahead of the midterms, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll:

If the election turns into a referendum on the president, that could be a boon to Democrats…if Trump’s job approval rating is in ugly shape, and if undecided voters break substantially against him. A new NBC/WSJ poll contains hopeful signs for both parties. Let’s start with the good news for Republicans: The president’s approval numbers have surged in the series, placing him back in the mid-40’s:

President Donald Trump’s approval rating edged higher during a week in which he faced withering criticism following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling that he is positioned to weather the latest controversy sparked by his unusual brand of politics. Mr. Trump’s job approval rating rose to 45% in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the highest mark of his presidency and up 1 percentage point from June. The survey was taken over a four-day period that started July 15, a day before Mr. Trump’s news conference with Mr. Putin in which he questioned the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 election…Mr. Trump’s overall approval rating continued to rank among the lowest of any modern president at this point his first term, and the poll turned up warning signals for him.

(Read more from “Poll: After Widely-Criticized Russia Week, This Happened to Trump’s Job Approval” HERE)

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Russia Dumps Almost All U.S. Bonds Due to ‘Geopolitical Risk,’ Buys Billions in Gold

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The Russian government has drastically reduced their holdings of United States Treasury bonds, with Russian ownership of U.S. bonds declining from $96.1 billion in March to $48.7 billion in April—and then further reducing their holdings to just $14.9 billion in May; an 11-year low.

A gradual Russian sell-off of U.S. sovereign debt began in 2011 and has intensified over the years as Washington has continued to impose sanctions against Russia. To put the massive sell-off into perspective, in 2010, Russia was among the top 10 holders of US Treasuries at $176.3 billion.

The Treasury released a list of 33 countries on Tuesday, which included the biggest holder, China, which held $1.2 trillion of US debt in May. Russia was not on the list, as there is a $30 billion threshold for inclusion on the Treasury Department’s monthly report of major sovereign debt holders.

A U.S. Treasury bond is a fixed-interest government debt security with a maturity of more than 10 years. Treasury bonds make interest payments twice a year.

Elvira Nabiullina, director of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said in May that the dramatic reduction of U.S. Treasury holdings was a result of the systematic risk assessment, which included financial, economic and geopolitical risk, according to RT.

In turn, Russia has been buying large amounts of gold during its gradual sell-off of U.S. Treasury bonds, and it recently overtook China as the world’s biggest holder of gold with $80.5 billion worth.

The global head of debt and rates strategy at ING, Padhraic Garvey, said that for Russia it equated to “moving from a safe asset to an ultra-safe asset,” in reference to the move from U.S. Treasury bonds to gold.

To be clear, the impetus for the move from Treasury bonds into gold coincides with a desire to breakaway from the hegemony of the U.S. petrodollar and the global dollar-based payment systems.

Over 60 percent of global reserves and 80 percent of global payments are currently denominated in U.S. dollars, according to James Rickards, author of Currency Wars.

The reason gold is so critical is that it cannot be manipulated by U.S.-based economic warfare, as it cannot be frozen out as other forms of digital and paper fiat can be.

Gold can simply be loaded onto pallets and shipped to another state to make a payment, thus bypassing targeted economic sanctions that are often used by the United States as a means of attempting to force geopolitical compliance by Russia and other countries. The strategic significance of gold is so great, that even when oil prices and Russian financial reserves were collapsing in 2015, they continued to acquire gold.

Additionally, the U.S. is the only country with veto power at the International Monetary Fund, known as the global lender of last resort. Thus, one of the most crucial weapons wielded by Russia, in its war to free itself from the hegemony of the petrodollar, is gold.

With the petrodollar being utilized as a weapon by the U.S. in a time of increased economic warfare, gold is a clearly a means of bypassing U.S. sanctions.

“Gold is an asset that is independent of any government and, in effect, given what is usually held in reserves, any Western government,” said Matthew Turner, metals analyst at Macquarie Group in London.“This might appeal given Russia has faced financial sanctions.”

With the recent launch of Chinese Yuan-denominated oil futures, and more sanctions being imposed on Russia—one can’t help but wonder if this rapid sell-off of U.S. Treasury holdings was meant as a test of sorts to assess the potential impact of a rapid Chinese liquidation of Treasury bonds. (For more from the author of “Russia Dumps Almost All U.S. Bonds Due to ‘Geopolitical Risk,’ Buys Billions in Gold” please click HERE)

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Rep Digs up Obama Dirt, Uses It to Completely Destroy Trump’s Russia Critics

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. . .Since nobody in the mainstream media will do the work, Rep. Steve Scalise — the congressman who miraculously survived an attack on his life last year — reminded the American people of exactly what took place between Russia and the United States during the Obama years.

“President @realDonaldTrump went into this meeting with Putin from a position of American strength to combat Russian aggression, but it’s important to remember how Russia was allowed to get to this point,” Scalise tweeted Monday.

. . .

Scalise started with the year 2009, when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gleefully presented a plastic “reset button” to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to reset relations with Russia and the United States, as if the gesture undid all the wrongs Russia committed against the U.S. and our allies.

Then, there was March 2012. Obama promised then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more “flexibility” on missile defense after being reelected. . .

During a presidential debate in 2012, candidate Mitt Romney called Russia our top geopolitical foe, only to be mocked by Obama — as well as other Democratic leaders and the media who said Romney’s stance was “outdated” and “a throwback to the Cold War.”

(Read more from “Rep Digs up Obama Dirt, Uses It to Completely Destroy Trump’s Russia Critics” HERE)

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Media Will Have a Hard Time Spinning Trump’s Latest Move That Hurts Russia

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A new move by the Trump administration is likely to upset Moscow and will be difficult for the media to spin as being friendly toward Putin as the Pentagon has reportedly sent more money to arm Ukraine.

“In a move likely to irk Moscow, the Pentagon has released $200M in new security assistance to Ukraine days after the Trump-Putin meeting, according to US & Ukrainian officials,” CNN reporter Ryan Browne tweeted. “The funds will go toward counter-artillery radars, vehicles, night vision, comms, & medical equipment.”

. . .

“When you actually look at the substance of what this administration has done, not the rhetoric but the substance, this administration has been much tougher on Russia than any in the post-Cold War era,” said Daniel Vajdich, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, according to NPR.

Trump has pushed sanctions against Russia which has greatly constrained their economy, kicked dozens of Russian diplomats out of the U.S., armed Ukraine, pushed for NATO member nations to increase defense spending, and killed hundreds of Russian mercenaries in Syria. (Read more from “Media Will Have a Hard Time Spinning Trump’s Latest Move That Hurts Russia” HERE)

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President Trump Says He Misspoke With Putin: I Have Full Faith in America’s Intelligence Agencies

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Speaking at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Trump clarified remarks he made during a joint press briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday.

The president said he accepts U.S. intelligence analysis that Russia did in fact interfere in the 2016 presidential election through propaganda, while stating there was no collusion between the Kremlin and his campaign. He said his administration is doing everything possible to prevent Russian meddling in future elections.

“I have full faith in our intelligence agencies,” Trump said. “I accept our intelligence community conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.”

After clarifying his remarks, Trump reiterated the progress he believes was made with Putin during a two hour long private meeting between the two leaders.

(Read more from “President Trump Says He Misspoke With Putin: I Have Full Faith in America’s Intelligence Agencies” HERE)

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Poll Shows How Americans Reacted to Trump’s Summit With Putin

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By The Blaze. While many in the media were excoriating President Donald Trump for his bizarre comments during the press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a new poll shows how Americans saw the episode. . .

According to a new Reuters poll, Americans’ approval of the president did not change substantively from the daily average in the same poll after the highly criticized meeting in Helsinki. . .

However, the average approval rating for Trump’s treatment remained low, at 42 percent of registered voters. The daily average for the month of July for the rating fell between 40 and 44.

When questioned about Russia specifically, a majority of registered voters (55 percent) said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of Russian relations, while only 37 percent approved of the same.

(Read more from “Poll Shows How Americans Reacted to Trump’s Summit With Putin” HERE)

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‘Better Than Super’: Russia Reacts to Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki

By NPR. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a master of diplomatic verbosity and sardonic barbs, summed up the results of the Helsinki summit in just three exuberant words: “better than super.”

After four years of getting short shrift by his American counterparts, Russian President Vladimir Putin was standing side by side with President Trump, who lavished him with the words of praise, respect and awe normally only heard on Russian state television.

When Putin militarily intervened in Ukraine in 2014, President Barack Obama called Russia a “regional power” that threatened its neighbors out of weakness, not strength. Russia’s annexation of Crimea set off a precipitous decline in relations with the United States. When he took office, Trump could not reverse the trend because of accusations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election. . .

There is relief in the Kremlin that Trump didn’t do anything unpredictable, make any demands on which further cooperation would depend or just appear ambivalent, according to Stanovaya. But despite the friendly atmosphere, she said, the Kremlin is aware Trump could still end up taking them by surprise.

Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, says that in the short term, the Kremlin can be happy about Putin’s burnished image as a statesman who holds his own with the U.S. president. (Read more from “‘Better Than Super’: Russia Reacts to Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki” HERE)

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