Why Russian 'Election Interference' Yarn is Unlikely to Prevent Dems From Defeat in 2022 Midterms

"This is a convenient distraction from rising prices and declining living standards in the US," says investigative journalist Rick Sterling. "The CIA and so-called intelligence community are always ready to speculate about what the bad guy - Russia - is up to. They admit there is no evidence; it is 100 percent speculation from very prejudiced and self-interested sources. Western media is thoroughly embedded with the intelligence agencies. They don't challenge their statements or expose their lies. Instead, western media promotes them."

It is not the first time the US has suggested the notion of Russia's "interference". In 2016 the Democrats blamed the defeat of their presidential hopeful on Moscow, actively peddling the narrative of the so-called "Trump-Russia collusion". Special Counsel Robert Mueller found zero evidence backing the Democrat camp's speculations.

For its part, cyber firm CrowdStrike, which claimed that it uncovered Russia's "interference" in the US election cycle through "hacking" the Democratic National Committee (DNC), later admitted that it does not have "concrete evidence" that alleged "Russian hackers" extracted any data from the DNC servers. Furthermore, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former US intelligence officers from the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, found that the alleged "hack" was nothing but an inside job.

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Nevertheless, the US intelligence community and the media continued to double down on the "Russia interference" narrative. On 2 August 2018, the New York Times quoted the heads of the US national security agencies who claimed that Russia was "still trying to influence and disrupt the midterm elections in the United States".

In September 2020, ABC News cited an intelligence report warning of a supposed Russian scheme to influence the US elections by promoting “allegations about the poor mental health” of the Democrat's presidential nominee, Joe Biden. On 21 October 2020, the FBI pointed the finger of blame at Moscow and Tehran for alleged meddling in the US election campaign by manipulating "some US voter registration information". Neither of these claims had been backed by any evidence whatever.

In addition to this, 51 former intelligence officials, including those peddling the Russia 2016 interference story, concluded in their open letter that Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" was nothing but a "Russian disinformation" operation. The open letter turned into an embarrassment for the intelligence veterans in 2022 after the laptop and its trove was verified as legitimate by the US mainstream press.

"The Intelligence community is easily used as a cover," explains Earl Rasmussen, executive vice-president of Eurasia Group. "It is, for the most part, although dwindling in credibility, trusted by the population. Hence, referencing an intelligence report or 'anonymous' intelligence sources provides a degree of credibility without the need for any actual facts or evidence. As we have seen over the past six years, these so-called 'intelligence' sources are seldom correct and most often far from providing reliable information."

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin meet for the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland

'Blaming Putin for Everything Until the Mid-terms'

It's not only election interference, but almost all serious problems at present haunting the US and its economy are being attributed to Russia. Thus, soaring gas prices were dubbed "Putin's price hike" by the White House and on 12 April, President Joe Biden blamed the 8.5 percent March inflation on Russia, claiming that 70 percent of the rise in prices last month "came from Putin's price hike in gasoline".

"We are now seeing the US Administration blaming Russia/President Putin for rising prices," Rasmussen says. "What they fail to mention is that the prices began to rise at record rates before the special military operation initiated by Russia in Ukraine. Both the domestic and foreign policy initiatives by the Biden Administration have been a complete failure. Moreover, they have accelerated the fall. The economy is teetering from post-economic recovery but has a high likelihood to plunge into a deep recession."

It appears that at least some American corporate journalists aren't buying into Biden's "Russia did it" narrative with Fox News' White House correspondent Peter Doocy openly asking Press Secretary Jen Psaki last month: "Are you guys going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?"

Press Secretary Jen Psaki holds a media briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2022.

The Federalist, a US conservative media outlet, noted last month that "the White House repeatedly uses the Russia-Ukraine conflict to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crises President Joe Biden has created." Judging from the conservative media narrative, the GOP is not interested in deflecting the blame on Russians: quite the contrary, they want to hold the Dems accountable for soaring inflation and exploit their blunders to win the forthcoming November midterms.

Despite the Biden administration's attempts to scapegoat Russia ahead of the elections "the 'blame Russia' tactic may not work in the autumn," Sterling reckons.

"I think it is highly likely that the Democrats will lose significantly in these mid-term elections and lose the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate," says Rasmussen. "Moreover, if heading on their current course, they will probably suffer serious losses in 2024 in both houses of Congress and the Presidency."