{"id":2224180,"date":"2024-04-18T13:14:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T17:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsweek-dusts-off-long-debunked-conspiracy-theory-to-smear-tom-massie\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T13:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T17:16:02","slug":"newsweek-dusts-off-long-debunked-conspiracy-theory-to-smear-tom-massie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsweek-dusts-off-long-debunked-conspiracy-theory-to-smear-tom-massie\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek resurfaces debunked conspiracy theory to tarnish Tom Massie&#8217;s reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnewsweek-dusts-off-long-debunked-conspiracy-theory-to-smear-tom-massie%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2224180&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article on \u200dNewsweek discusses Thomas Massie&#8217;s connection to \u2062Russia ahead of the Ukraine \u2062aid vote. Social media criticism points\u200c out his\u2062 stance on aiding\u2062 Ukraine and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/more-on-pennsylvania-another-statistical-analysis-shows-roughly-300000-biden-votes-are-questionable\/\" title=\"More on Pennsylvania - Another Statistical Analysis Shows Roughly 300,000 Biden Votes Are Questionable\">voting record<\/a> supporting Moscow. Various opinions\u2064 on Massie&#8217;s affiliation with Russian figures like Maria Butina are dissected. The narrative\u2062 aims to portray Massie as aligned with Russian interests, sparking \u200ddebate on his political positions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>\u201cThomas Massie\u2019s Russia Ties Resurface Ahead of Ukraine Aid Vote,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/thomas-massie-ukraine-russia-vote-aid-1891701?utm_term=Autofeed&#038;utm_medium=Social&#038;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1713444805\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a> Newsweek.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAhead of Saturday\u2019s vote in the House,\u201d writes reporter Ewan Palmer, \u201ca number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-furious-ca-restaurant-owner-confronts-inspectors-issuing-citation-are-you-gonna-pay-my-rent\/\" title=\"WATCH: Furious CA Restaurant Owner Confronts Inspectors Issuing Citation: \u2018Are You Gonna Pay My Rent?\u2019\">social media users<\/a> have criticized Massie for not backing additional aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, while noting his voting record in support of Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1470170077\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-53875841ccafbabf0a971724cbed017b fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-53875841ccafbabf0a971724cbed017b\"><\/div>\n<p>Oh, <em>a number of social media users<\/em>, you say? Well then, by all means, let\u2019s investigate.<\/p>\n<p>One social media user, Newsweek informs us, contends that Massie is one of the most \u201cpro-Putin Republicans in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In contemporary left-wing parlance, \u201cpro-Putin\u201d describes anyone who opposes sending Volodymyr Zelensky a blank check. Now, if your argument is that Massie is functionally \u201cpro-Putin\u201d for voting against Ukrainian aid, so be it. But if you fail to mention that Massie, a libertarian, also opposes \u2014 as far as I can tell \u2014 every <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-aligned-group-comes-out-against-biden-106-billion-foreign-aid-bill\/\" title=\"Trump-aligned group opposes Biden's 6B foreign aid bill.\">foreign aid bill<\/a> and any resolution that even deals with foreign nations, you\u2019re just being a dishonest hack.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m no Massie fan; I find him unserious a lot of the time. But, unlike, say, the members of \u201cthe squad,\u201d he doesn\u2019t <em>only<\/em> vote against resolutions and aid to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/full-list-representatives-voted-against-funding-israel-iron-dome-1632385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">longtime allies<\/a>, which bolsters Iran and Hamas.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6244c8f04ca52921f01ba438037e1610 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6244c8f04ca52921f01ba438037e1610\"><\/div>\n<p>Newsweek says historian Timothy Snyder also tweeted that it was, \u201cWorth recalling that Rep. Massie socialized with Russian spies and defended one in the press.\u201d This too is a contextless slander.<\/p>\n<p>The alleged \u201cspy\u201d in question was Maria Butina, a low-level Russian transfer student who began befriending conservative activists years before Trump ever ran for office. Democrats laughably made her out to be Mata Hari.<\/p>\n<p>Butina, a sidekick of Russian politician Alexander Torshin, was accused of \u201cinfiltrating\u201d the NRA (sometimes referred to as \u201cbecoming a member\u201d) so she could bribe the organization into helping Donald Trump. Because, of course, the NRA <em>had never once<\/em> backed Republicans before 2016. You\u2019d think the NRA had absolutely no reason to be concerned about Hillary Clinton, the most vocal anti-Second Amendment presidential candidate in memory. <\/p>\n<p>In any event, reporters from major news outlets were deployed to confirm priors and unfurl this Russki plot to funnel money into the NRA campaign against Hillary. You can read more about their tendentious effort <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/09\/30\/with-the-help-of-media-democrats-are-smearing-the-nra\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-04c2a604603e523e4b299c076fb91207 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-04c2a604603e523e4b299c076fb91207\"><\/div>\n<p>When it was all said and done, NPR finally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/04\/11\/601534305\/nra-in-new-document-acknowledges-more-than-20-russian-linked-contributors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in April 2018 that the \u201cNRA, In New Document, Acknowledges More Than 20 Russian-Linked Contributors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/04\/12\/the-lefts-newest-nra-conspiracy-theory-approaches-9-11-truther-territory\/\">That was it<\/a>. Never was another penny uncovered.<\/p>\n<p>The 23 \u201cRussian-linked\u201d individuals, some of them American citizens living in Russia \u2014 a country, again, that was at the time being wooed by Obama \u2014 contributed around $2,500 total, mostly in membership dues, over three years\u2019 time. Approximately $525 of that sum came from \u201ctwo individuals.\u201d No more was ever discovered.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m not saying the NRA can\u2019t use $2,500. But one suspects an organization with millions of members would ask for a bit more to become a proxy of a foreign state.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, Massie did meet Butina. You know who else did? A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/getreligion\/2018\/8\/8\/when-it-comes-to-the-russians-the-national-prayer-breakfast-is-a-convenient-whipping-boy\">bunch of people<\/a> at the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast and Obama administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSKBN1KC0DC\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Treasury Department<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2019\/06\/19\/state-department-official-didnt-disclose-ties-boyfriend-russian-agent-maria-butina\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">State Department <\/a>officials, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>To get a sense of just how dishonest this smear is, note that Massie\u2019s alleged \u201cdefense\u201d of this Russian \u201cspy\u201d comes down to a RealClearPolitics <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2018\/08\/16\/russia_hysteria_undercuts_our_values_impedes_relations_137812.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">op-ed in 2018<\/a>. As of this writing, the hyperlink-happy Newsweek has failed to link to the congressman\u2019s column. You know why? Newsweek\u2019s framing makes it seem like Massie wrote an apologia for <em>kompromat<\/em>. The column itself, written before Butina\u2019s plea deal, features one paragraph quite presciently warning about the paranoia that\u2019s gripped D.C.:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>For example, the current hysteria may have motivated the recent arrest and indictment of Maria Butina, a former Russian graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C. Unlike many accused of violent crimes, Butina (who has not been accused of harming anyone) was denied bail, and is now reportedly being held in solitary confinement in federal prison until her trial. The indictment claims she acted as an unregistered agent of the Russian government. Thin on substance, it oddly suggests, for example, that attendance at a National Prayer Breakfast is something nefarious.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>My quixotic hope is that Putin\u2019s authoritarian state crumbles into an ash heap and a free country arises, yet I still know every word of what Massie wrote is factual. Butina was supposedly the lynchpin of Putin\u2019s efforts. There wasn\u2019t any evidence that she engaged in any kind of espionage. She was an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-biden-allies-worked-for-group-with-close-ties-to-chinese-communist-party\/\" title=\"Top Biden Allies Worked for Group With Close Ties to Chinese Communist Party\">unregistered foreign agent<\/a>, at best. She pled out and was deported back to Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Put it this way, there are likely thousands of lawyers in D.C. right now engaging in the same crime at far higher levels. We know that <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/09\/27\/democrats-favorite-appeaser-hired-iranian-conspirators-for-obama-and-biden-positions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">numerous Iranian assets<\/a> have worked in the Obama and Biden administrations on behalf of Iran. Nothing will ever happen to any of them.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, since 2016, the left has decided to smear anyone who disagrees with them on policy as a fifth columnist. Fine. I just wish they\u2019d cook up some new conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9b3a49353b3774c76794bdc31fddbf0e fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9b3a49353b3774c76794bdc31fddbf0e\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newsweek reports on Thomas Massie&#8217;s Russia ties resurfacing before the Ukraine aid vote. Social media users criticize his stance on aiding Ukraine and highlight his voting history supporting Moscow. House vote expected Saturday. Reported by Ewan Palmer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2224181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Tom-Massie-1024x640.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Tom-Massie-1024x640.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2224181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}