Adam Schiff to Tucker Carlson: 'You're Carrying Water for the Kremlin'

The Russian Menace is making congressmen even dumber, it seems.

As Ed Krayewski pointed out earlier, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) yesterday accused a Yahoo News anchor of being "biased" about Russia after she told him (at his demand) that she immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet republic of Moldova. Sadly, that wasn't the only instance of a congressman accusing a journalist of possible dual loyalty over the Russia issue even yesterday.

From the opposite direction of the great Putin divide, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) went further, if a bit more jokily, on Fox News host Tucker Carlson. After a contested, interruption-heavy exchange with Carlson about whether Democrats had proof that Putin knowingly hacked John Podesta's emails, Schiff said "You're carrying water for the Kremlin….You're going to have to move your show to RT." Watch:

I lean much closer to Schiff than Rohrabacher when it comes to general hostility toward Vladimir Putin, but I'm squarely on Team Tucker (and Bianna!) here. Fact-free accusations of bias due to loyalty or antipathy to foreign governments are crude coming from anybody, let alone influential congressmen. If there are indeed Russians (or Moldovans) hiding under our national bed, it's gonna take more to prove that case than yelling booga booga.

Comments

[TheZeitgeist]

...a Yahoo News anchor of being "biased" about Russia after she told him (at his demand) that she immigrated to the United States from the former soviet republic of Moldova

Pro-Russian Moldovans? I thought they were on knife's edge being so close to the bear-pig and Ukraine.

[Suthenboy]

Look, if you are going to start being rational you are going to ruin the whole thing.

[Jimbo]

I know, right? JFC, our baseless and laughable conspiracy theories are what keeps H&R great!

[Dan S.]

No, she was accused of anti-Russian bias, That's why the second paragraph of this piece begins "From the opposite direction of the great Putin divide".

[Tman]

In the war between Tucker and John Stewart I never thought Tucker would come out on top but holy shit.

Since he lost the bowtie and Fox moved him up he's been burning the left and their associates from the SJW to the ground on a daily basis and it has been much fun to watch.

Meanwhile Stewart has been trying to convince the left that maybe the first responders who voted for Trump aren't actually racist misogynists.

Good times!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fact-free accusations of bias due to loyalty or antipathy to foreign governments are crude coming from anybody, let alone influential congressmen.

Hey, when it's all you have...

[Bra Ket]

I dunno that it's all that "crude". Unless a presidential candidate does it to a ethnic minority judge or something. Otherwise just a good ole ad hominem fallacy that everyone engages in. There is a shade of "they're all the same" racism sometimes, especially when they get the country wrong.

[TheZeitgeist]

Racist against...Moldovans?

You know who else was a confused white supremacist who hated Slavs despite so many gorgeous girls?

[Ken Shultz]

I only started paying attention to Fox News after the last election.

If Tucker Carlson ever says anything interesting, it's by accident. He comes across as a really whiny turd.

I'd rather watch that hot chick, what'shername.

Anyway, he did crush the New York Times public editor. Made her make the Times look biased on TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6nRfwZ0BQ8

I'd give him credit for that, but proving the Times is biased is like giving someone credit for proving that water is wet, ice is cold, fire is hot, etc.

Anyway, everything is more interesting when that hot chick what'shername says it.

[Lee Genes]

I'll carry Bianna's water anytime.

[GILMORE?]

Every political party needs a boogeyman. Whether its an obvious thing/person, or a more-subtle 'idea', they all have them.

But this pants-shitting about Russia from the left is possibly the dumbest shit i've heard in my life. Please, go back to claiming the Kochs control everything. At least that had some rough-outlines of plausibility.

Russia is a 3rd rate petro-state who called Obama's bluff in Syria, and exposed his administration's incompetence. Now they want to pretend that Russia is somehow more "Cyber"-sophisticated than we are. Even tho the NSA has routinely been wire-tapping world leaders and infecting people with snoopy-malware for the last 10 years or so.

Putin is a total dick, to be sure. But doesn't Reason always say the best way to 'change' our enemies is to trade with them? Russia could be an ally we hold at arm's length rather than someone we empower by pretending he's an Arch Villian. We're pushing estranged countries into his arms by acting like he's our nemesis. They make a bad situation worse by getting the public inflamed about Russia.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

The Left making Russia their boogeyman and saying things like "you're carrying the Kremlin's water" is not only funny, it's also ironic. The Leftists are imitating the people they used to lampoon, right down to the catchphrases. They're gonna start yelling "better dead than Red!" and "kill a commie for Mommy!" any minute now.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

That's how it goes for the party out of power.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

The left saw how much fun the right had winning the Cold War, so they're trying to start up another one even if we end up being the bad guys this time.

[BestUsedCarSales]

CNN is going to just start showing Red Dawn all day every day.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

The Patrick Swayze version, I presume?

[TheZeitgeist]

Cubans are bad guys. Too soon.

[Hyperion]

"But this pants-shitting about Russia from the left is possibly the dumbest shit i've heard in my life. Please, go back to claiming the Kochs control everything. At least that had some rough-outlines of plausibility."

It absolutely is the dumbest thing that a political party has ever came up with in my lifetime. Straight up conspiracy theory non-sense. If I were interviewing one of them, I'd ask them if the lizard people in the hollow moon are also in on this. They've jumped the fucking shark this time.

[Richard K Jones]

I call it "The Eastern Strategy", where Russian perceptions are modified by the Left from evil communist to evil oligarchist...

[Richard K Jones]

I call it "The Eastern Strategy", where Russian perceptions are modified by the Left from evil communist to evil oligarchist...

[Ken Shultz]

It's funny how powerful women can be. They can change what you want. Not by trying or being manipulative or anything. Just what you want changes.

I was out with this Ukrainian last week. I'm sitting there listening to her, and I'm thinking, "Ukraine. Yeah, I think I want to go to the Ukraine. Cold in the winter is it? Nice in the summer! Yeah, I'd love to go to the Ukraine That's the best idea ever!".

It's a good thing she's not from Syria or Afghanistan, or I might suddenly want to go there, too.

Moldova? Isn't that the country with the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUnhfvGdmmw

[Brett L]

No kidding. I used to want to be with a beautiful woman in my bed every night. Now all I want is one night where my wife goes to her mother's with the kid, but without me.

[Billy Bones]

I've been to Odessa, Ukraine (never got to make it in-country) but I absolutely loved it. And if I'm not mistaking, Odessa is considered the French Riviera of the Soviet States.

[Billy Bones]

I even still have a Russian Playboy that I bought as a souvenir. Think it had members of Russian Olympic team in it. I have never removed it from the plastic. It's about 20 years old now.

[Jimbo]

Still in the original plastic, huh? Keep is stain free!

[Groovus Maximus]

Correct. I live in Odessa Oblast'.

And Ken, if you come to UKR, shoot me an email. Despite how....verbose...you can be, I'd make sure that you see all the good sights, where all the good eats are, and direct you to where all the good, clean, Sultry Slavic Wimminz are.

Biggest travel advantage: US Dollar is king, since the value of the Hryvnia is a USD rounding error.

[Mr Drew]

What? I thought you were Slav who had moved to America's goofy cousin to the North.

Again, I wish for a (completely voluntary) member profile page. I sometimes have trouble keeping the players straight.

[Groovus Maximus]

Nopers, Drew, that is Pan Zagloba, AKA "The Stickler". Yours truly is a 'Murican expatriate to the Land of Aloof Runway Models, Famine, Truffles, and Radiation.

And yes, voluntary member profile pages would be AWESOME, since it would reduce a number of redundant chatter fests here.

But this is Reason, Home of Server Skvirrels, and Matt Welch's tweener nephew running an Apache server on a 486 Pentium II.

[Mr Drew]

This is nearly as embarrassing as the time I confused the super-nice Tonio and fucking Tony.

[Groovus Maximus]

I have done that very thing, Drew. And I have been posting here for years. Fortunately, Tonio is quite forgiving about that mistake.

I wouldn't sweat it.

[Zeb]

voluntary member profile pages would be AWESOME

I don't know. Some are still on the fence about registration and threaded comments. That would be way too much like some kind of social networking site.

There have been several attempts to do something like that independently of Reason, but never really got going.

[Groovus Maximus]

That would be way too much like some kind of social networking site.

Sloopy and Banjos met on these here very registrated, very threaded threads, and produced three kids, and a couple of others have gotten together as well. Not to mention the various local and regional Meet & Greets (which Dr. ZG and I want to do when we come to The States next May), so methinks that ship has sailed some time ago.

Besides, Zebulon, it's not like anyone would view your fuddy duddy profile anyway (Kidding!) *grins*

[Zeb]

And all without member profiles. I thought they met pre-regsitration (but post threading).

I'm just a (premature) old fart. Don't need that new fangled shit. And get off my lawn.

[Zeb]

And yeah, the social aspect can be great. There's a little group in my part of the country that tries to get together from time to time. You are certainly welcome to join if you find yourself in the NH/MA area at any point.

[Citizen X]

You're thinking of Pan Zagloba. Groovus is a doctor who moved to Ukraine because that's where the Ukrainian women at.

[Lee Genes]

College roommate dated Miss Odessa back in the early nineties. Kowabunga....

The bad part was that she was a walking barfight instigator. Guys would see her and just want to fight.

[Brett L]

Yeah. I've met those girls. And by met, I mean had them sneer and turn away when I tried to introduce myself.

[Groovus Maximus]

*Dr. ZG points and sneers giggles 'sympathetically' at Brett*

[Brett L]

Its fine. I'm happily married to a woman who is only a couple of classes above me. Its like scene in High Fidelity where he's dating Catherine Zeta-Jones and he comes up with "you gotta punch your weight". I can't punch heavyweight and I'm okay with that. Getting knocked out without your opponent even knowing you were in the ring is how you learn you're fighting too heavy.

[Groovus Maximus]

Meh. Dr. ZG was kidding, Brett. She readily admits that UKR Wimminz are a handful, being, culturally speaking, an extremely blunt peoples.

Lord knows how much shit I put up with at times, being a 'furriner' here...*ducks borshh pan*

[Brett L]

Its all in good fun, Doc.

[Groovus Maximus]

Yeah, it's all fun and games until you wake up and realise that, "Marriage and a Baby Carriage," is a real thang, and not some weird flashback type dream brought on by food poisoning.

Be grateful that at least Mrs. Brett didn't filet and cauterise your frick and frack. *grins*

[Brett L]

She's lobbying pretty hard to have an outside professional brought in to separate my swimmers pool from their route to the promised land. We'll see. There may be one more try for a daughter before that.

[Zeb]

Don't do it. Having daughters breaks men's brains.

[Groovus Maximus]

Well, she's correct to do so, but the best bet is what we did:

She had her tunes cauterised, since she responds terribly to RX hormonal birth control, and barrier protection, while very effective, was really inappropriate since disease isn't a concern for us.

So, she suggested that we both get snipped, since we have reached our kiddo output early (the twins were a major surprise, since neither of our medical and familial HXs suggested it a possibility), and that is the absolute best way to ensure no more unplanned pregnancies. IF we want any more kids, we will adopt.

So, she got fixed almost about a month ago, and when I finally agreed to let her do mine (she appealed to the pocket book; she isn't going to bill her husband), she made a big production of it, refusing to let *ANY* female personnel in either pre-op, intratheatre, or post-op, since, and I quote [rough translation], "You are... very above average....my husband. I do not want any other woman here to see you and lust for you. That penis is MINE!" So, she had one of the male nurses quickly trained for OR in sterile technique (almost all the OR personnel are females) to assist her, since she refused to have any other gals (especially support staff) view her husband's junk (not a bad idea since I work with them). Dr. ZG is a rather jealous woman, much to my delight.

Good times. If you told me five years ago I would be where I am at now, I'd call you a mother fucking lunatic.... *grins*

[Citizen X]

That is the weirdest humblebrag i've seen in a while.

[Groovus Maximus]

Eastern Europe is a weird place.-) English Russia much?

[Citizen X]

Nu, shto ti?

[Groovus Maximus]

He zhe CHto.-) (chto, pravil'no - shto, nepravil'no).

[Citizen X]

Izvinitye, ya ne znayu Ukrainskiy yazik.

[Brett L]

The important thing is, when your wife has a scalpel to your nuts, you humor whatever crazy she's into.

[Lee Genes]

He was over there (ukraine) when everyone wanted out and he was a good looking guy. Fish in a barrel.

[Brett L]

Its crazy how the Russians suddenly morphed into an existential and pervasive threat since about January without changing any behaviors.

[GILMORE?]

yeah, the speed with which the narrative was ginned-up and immediately made "conventional wisdom" is absurd.

It seems to have required a complete erasure of any memory of recent history, where Russia was a country we were trying to "Reset" relations with.

I think the anti-gay story surrounding the Sochi Olympics in 2014 provided a handy segue into their intervention in Syria.... basically, there was already some public-distaste ready to be exploited;

What's so absurd about Russia being spun as our "Enemy" because of Syria... is that the media has never even attempted to coherently articulate exactly what our goals are in Syria in the first place.

In 2011-2012, the story was "Assad Must Go". Because 'we say so'. Not the UN, just our unilateral decree. Did we sent Russia a note saying, "Don't worry, you can keep your mediterranean navy base" first? I don't think so.

Then the US quietly abandoned that story, and then started to pretend the reason we were shipping guns and money into Syria was because of ISIS. "Fighting terror" sells better than regime change.

But Russia exploited that rhetorical-change. If we weren't there to oust Assad, well, why should we oppose them helping out their own ally? And they could also claim to be defending the country against terrorists. They didn't do anything we didn't give them room to do.

[bacon-magic]

I like Tucker Carlson. I'm sorry and will watch some Kmele Foster to atone.

[JEP]

So, I haven't watched RT in quite a while, but several years ago I remember being surprised by how libertarian their reporting was. They would interview Austrian economists, Lew Rockwell, and even the anchors would make libertarian-ish arguments.

I think one of their anchors resigned on-air over ideology?

Anyone know what that was all about? Just found it really odd considered it was the North American wing of the Russian new service.

[Citizen X]

What better way to tweak the noses of North American statists than by being blatantly libertarian?

[Jordan]

My impression is they like to give airtime to just about anybody who hates the U.S. government (not a bad thing, IMO).

[JEP]

Yeah, I thought they might just be trying to be subversive, but I wasn't sure if there was another reason.

I have noticed that in a lot of Middle Eastern/Indian restaurants they have RT playing on the TV in the corner...might be the news channel of choice in those parts of the world.

[Billy Bones]

I get the RT feed on my Derpbook. Usually has interesting news, with Libertarian slant. And, of course, RT is good enough for Larry King, so I reckon they can't be all bad.

[BakedPenguin]

I'd noticed that as well. My guess was they were committed statists who thought libertarianism would weaken the US if it ever got a foothold.

[Zeb]

Boy, you really don't have to be that bright to get elected to congress, do you?

The accusation against Carlson only makes any sense if you assume that the debate that they are in the middle of having is already settled.

I guess it's pretty standard. Same treatment as anyone who dares question any kind of alarmist climate science. "You're just carrying water for Big Oil".

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

Boy, you really don't have to be that bright to get elected to congress, do you?

People generally don't like to follow 'leaders' who are too much smarter than themselves. The sweet spot is something like 10-15 IQ points higher than the average idiot.

[Billy Bones]

That is an interesting hypothesis and one that seems to have validity.

[Hugh Akston]

So is this what the next four years are gonna look like? One side accuses their opponents of being in bed with Russia, while the other side accuses their opponents of being in league with the Chinese?

[Citizen X]

Some of them, i assume, will be accused of backing ISIS.

[Suthenboy]

Fact-free accusations are the stock in trade for the left. Every one of their accusation and all of their issues are fictions.

This ' you are carrying water for Putin' and 'Fake News' crap is the new McCarthyism.

[Adans smith]

Seieng that the U.S ,Britain,France,Germany ,China ect do hacking and spying on whole populations. Of course the U.S. never has interfered in a countries elections. Pot,meet kettle.

[Brett L]

It is definitely censorious at heart. Its the traditional disaggregation cycle. Industry players who used to be able to control the marketplace for their product find themselves losing out to newer, smaller operations as barriers to entry fall, and strike back by claiming that their new competitors are dangerous, untested, and probably selling you something that will kill your children due to intentionally shoddy production.

I'm having a conversation via text right now with an environmental lawyer friend of mine who is died in the wool DC Democrat. Every time I put forth the argument that this isn't a new thing, it isn't a particular threat to anyone except the traditional media powers, and that it is only intended to censor her political opponents, she keeps saying "yeah, but Pizzagate", "yeah, but its different because Trump tweets". I'm not going to change her mind, but she's good for sharpening my arguments against.

[Hyperion]

LOL, they've lost their fucking minds with this Russia bullshit. They really don't have the self awareness to realize when they've fucked up and to just drop something, do they? No, once they've lashed onto anything, they'll hang onto it until the bitter end.

[Billy Bones]

Kind of like a pit bull, only much more stupid.

[Adans smith]

Truth is,if Russia didn't have nukes they'd be a middling regional power. Then again,the trouble with nukes is you can not use them unless you want wiped for the face of the earth.

[Bill Dalasio]

Adam Schiff got elected based on the support of the baby-raping lobby. In fact, I have as much evidence of this as Mr. Schiff has that Mr. Putin was behind the hacking of the DNC. And if Adam Schiff denies this or asks me to provide evidence of my claim, it's just evidence that he's carrying water for babyrapers.

[DJF]

Has anyone provided any evidence that the Russians have interfered with US elections?

At least when they accused Saddam of having biological weapons they showed blurry photos of tractor trailers used for blowing up weather balloons.

[Sevo]

DJF|12.8.16 @ 1:42PM|#
"Has anyone provided any evidence that the Russians have interfered with US elections?"

The local rag, which lists to port far enough to capsize, came out with a headline right after the electorate told the hag to get lost: The russkis 'used sophisticated software to propagandize' the American unwashed, and that's the reason the hag took it in the shorts.
Not because she had enough baggage to require a bell-hop local all on her own. Nope, that had nothing to do with a it.

[Zeb]

So, that's a "no", right?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

If "The Russians" did hack Podesta's email, they did America a great service.

[Hyperion]

Assange and Wikileaks did the hacking. Everyone knows this. You have this Democrat here saying that these hacks couldn't have occured without TOP.MEN in government being behind it. That's so laughable. Hillary's server was totally unsecured, a rank amateur hacker in high school could have easily gotten everything on there. And anyone remember Gucifer? Just some guy living in Romania? Democrats are embarrassed by their own incompetence is what it comes down to.

[Brett L]

Didn't some high school kids in the US successfully spearfish a cabinet member or deputy something or other?

[Adans smith]

It seems most hacks like this are done by people too smart to work in government and hate the 'TOP MEN'. No matter the country,

[Hyperion]

And then you have a government so incompetent that someone can take home the State Department's email server and put it in a closet in their basement. Russia, my fucking arse.

[BakedPenguin]

I thought it was funny that the Dems never spoke to the veracity of the Podesta emails, just that they'd been hacked. They couldn't even bother to deny them.

Also, after Clinton's colossal email fuck up as SoS, couldn't she or her people learn anything? Idiots.

[Adans smith]

'They forget nothing and learn nothing.'

[kbolino]

I don't know if it was their tech team or their legal team or both that told them not to say anything, but those emails have digital signatures (of the servers that sent them) so it would be kinda hard for them to say with a straight face that the emails were forgeries. Not that it has stopped their water carriers...

[juris imprudent]

I commend my former home, CA, for its truly bipartisan stupidity.

[Rich]

If there are indeed Russians (or Moldovans) hiding under our national bed, it's gonna take more to prove that case than yelling booga booga.

What?! And jeopardize NATIONAL SECURITY?!

[Sevo]

"Fact-free accusations of bias due to loyalty or antipathy to foreign governments are crude coming from anybody, let alone influential congressmen."

Comments by "influential" congress-critters should be assumed to be fact-free until proven otherwise.
They have many incentives to lie and few to tell the truth.

[Libertarian]

OT. Sorry, but this never gets old. The Dow today (so far) is up another 80 points.

"If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never."
-- Paul Krugman on his blog, 12:42 a.m. on 11/9/16

If nothing else, it's a cautionary tale that blogging at one in the morning when you're depressed may not be the best thing to do.

[DJF]

Someone should set up the Krugman Fund which bases its stock and bond picks on doing the opposite of what Krugman says

[Citizen X]

I'm pretty sure that's how Kmele Foster became the richest man alive.

[Sevo]

At odd moments when I'd like a cheering message, I enter 'krugman predicts the market will never recover' in a search window and get an immediate lift!

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Oh, and I'm still wondering: why would Russia hack the election to make Trump president? What's in it for them? Free stays at Trump tower? They wouldn't hack U.S. elections for the fun of it; they'd have some end goal in mind. So, my dear paranoid proggies, what is it?

[kbolino]

They wanted a politician that could be bought and paid for!

... uh, don't think about that one too hard

[Brett L]

Clearly, the Clinton Administration was going to be so smart and so dominant [because of facts not immediately in evidence] that Russia's only continued path to relevance was to derail the Greatest Wartime President in American History* before she was elected.

*hattip to Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)

[Zeb]

The most plausible reason I've heard (from commenter grizzly, who is Russian) is that respect is a very important thing to Russians of Putin's ilk and that there is a perception that Putin and Trump would have a respectful relationship.
Which still seems far fetched. But it's really the only remotely sensible explanation I've encountered.

[GILMORE?]

What's in it for them?

Russians needs lulz too

[libertreee]

REASON cosmotarians backed Pussy Riot completely in their battle with Putin and Orthodox Church .
Gays are second class in Russia. I am opposed to that
The allegations of human rights abuses in Russia deserve to be scrutinized of course. But, even the Guardian article linked to above admits the murder of Nemstov could very well have been done by rogue ultra nationalists, without any input from Putin.
When Welch was on the INDEPENDENTS they featured the slimeball MIchael Weiss, a Christopher Hitchens wannabe lover of Jihadi Porn (he loves being selfied with so called moderat jihadis, like Sen McCain). Weiss has ties to the LEGATUM GROUP, a neocon outfit owned by the Chandler Bros, Austrialian oligarchs who were one of the prime rapists of the Russian people in the 1990's.
The main scam involved shares of the Russian GDP which were distributed to the Russian people after collapse of communism as vouchers Chandler and other oligarchs ( the Gang of Seven) bought these vouchers off the people at a fraction of their face value and then the Russian Central Bank bought them at par, an enormous expropriation of wealth from the Russian People.
Putin's expulsion and jailing of Oligarchs (some went to Ukraine) is the reason for his popularity, along with his revitilization of culture and trade, and his assertion of Russian interests on foreign policy. Not political repression, intimidation or violence.

[Groovus Maximus]

Are you related to Michael Hihn, Hank Philips, and HazelMeade, perchance?

[John Titor]

Pretty sure he's a paid Russian propagandist. Only ever shows up on articles about Russia or Putin.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Gays are second class in Russia. I am opposed to that

Me too. Gays are first class in my book!

[GILMORE?]

the slimeball MIchael Weiss

You forgot the ((())) you normally add

The people who attack mike weiss always go after his "associations" and never actually seem to quote anything he says or address the arguments he makes.