Congress made real inroads Wednesday toward understanding what Russia was up to during the 2016 election, and it wasn’t so much about tipping the election to Donald Trump.
Instead, it was about making everyone in America really mad at each other.
A more sophisticated country might have realized America doesn’t need much help in this department. For the last decade or so, Americans have followed a strict regimen of waking up, yelling at each other all day, and then going back to bed, after maybe a little light reading about why they can’t seem to get a good night’s rest.
But Russia wanted to turn it up a notch.
In a hearing with representatives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr showed that Russia was trying to orchestrate a sort of fight club in Texas. First, Russia set up a fake Facebook group called “Heart of Texas,” and set up a rally in Houston to “stop the Islamization of Texas.”
Then, Russia set up another Facebook group called “United Muslims of America” that set up a “Save Islamic Knowledge” event. That event was scheduled for Houston, on the same day as the “Heart of Texas” event.
“What neither side could have known is that Russian trolls were encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans,” Burr marveled.
Russia didn’t stop there. Google told the Senate committee that Russia tried to get Americans fighting over lots of other things, like the Electoral College, and the national anthem protests at NFL games.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, noted that Russia-backed trolls set up groups like “NFL,” and “BoycottNFL,” and “StandForOurAnthem,” and “MAGA,” and “TakeAKnee.”
“In other words, they were tweeting on both sides of the NFL dispute in order to exacerbate the divisions,” King said.
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released similar ads, many of which had thousands of “likes” from people on social media. One supported black protests against police brutality, but another showed a policeman’s funeral and lamented “another gruesome attack on police.”
One encouraged people to “support Hillary” and “save American Muslims,” and another said “Down with Hillary!”
Well, Russia better watch out. America will see through this. In fact, I believe America is going to rise up as one, and remind the world what it’s capable of when it comes together and unifies around a single purpose.
Just as soon as we’re done fighting over which side was dumber for falling for Russia’s trick …
