CNN requests RT contributor’s comments for hit piece just ahead of US election

30 Oct, 2024 20:43 / Updated 4 weeks ago
The broadcaster has sought Tara Reade’s input on what it calls “Russian disinformation narratives”

Pro-Democrat US media outlets are desperately trying to make last-minute attempts to influence the upcoming presidential election, RT contributor and former aide to Joe Biden, Tara Reade, has claimed. Some networks are now recycling the old “Russian interference” narrative going back to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, she told RT, while revealing a CNN attempt to get a comment from her on the topic.

CNN published a lengthy hit piece on Wednesday, claiming that the broadcaster’s journalists, together with Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, supposedly uncovered a sprawling disinformation network backed by Moscow and spreading narratives that are then amplified by various popular US speakers.

Dubbed “Storm-1516” according to CNN, the network reportedly targeted Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The broadcaster sought to approach Reade as one the “prominent figures” allegedly sharing the network's narratives to get her take on the issue.

In a letter to her lawyer, a CNN producer asks for Reade’s response “to reports that you have repeated and amplified Russian disinformation about Ukraine and the US election.”

According to Reade herself, what was presented to her through her lawyer was “more of a series of accusations” rather than questions. “The accusations are that I’m somehow involved, [and former president and Republican presidential nominee] Donald Trump is involved with interfering into the elections and presenting disinformation,” she told RT.

The former aide, who worked for President Biden when he was a senator, said she was not particularly concerned by the situation, adding that such actions showed only that US Democratic elites were frantically trying to tip the scales in their favor ahead of the vote.

“It really shows desperation,” Reade said. “They are clinging to Hillary 2.0 argument that Russia interfered,” the RT contributor stated, pointing to similar arguments the Democrats used back in 2016. “I do not think that Moscow has any interest in interfering, nor need.”

“The Democratic elites, the ones that are losing power right now, are getting a bit desperate,” Reade said, adding that “the only people that are interfering with the election are coming from inside the election.”