With the Washington Post stuck in a mud-slinging meme war with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, the capital’s paper of record has found itself on the receiving end of internet trolls’ meme-cannons.
Confused? The sordid saga began Friday, when the Post published an op-ed titled “Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset,” in which columnist Dana Milbank accused the Senate Majority Leader of selling out to the Kremlin by refusing to bring a trio of anti-election-meddling bills to the Senate floor. That the bills came bundled with untenable (to the GOP at least) Democratic demands was immaterial; McConnell was quickly dubbed “Moscow Mitch” on Twitter.
Also on rt.com ‘Moscow Mitch’ sells out to the Kremlin: Same old voter access debate with Russian dressingAsked by reporters on Tuesday to respond, President Trump said, "The Washington Post called Mitch McConnell what? I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset by comparison.”
Though Trump has called the Post “garbage,”“fiction,” and “more like a poorly written novel than good reporting,”“Russian asset” is a new one for the president.
The Post wasted no time fact-checking Trump’s quip, proudly tweeting out: “Trump makes unfounded claim The Washington Post is a ‘Russian Asset.”
The irony wasn’t lost on McConnell, however. “OMG I’m so sorry this is happening to you” tweeted his campaign team, with the patronizing just dripping from the emojis.
The president’s re-election “War Room” followed suit, jabbing the paper with a snarky rewording of the Mueller Report’s insinuations about obstruction of justice:
“If we had confidence that the @washingtonpost is not a Russian asset, we would so state. Based on the facts, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”
Other twitter users joined in with glee, holding the paper to the same standard as the Trump administration faced in 'Russiagate' inquiries.
“Can the Washington Post prove they're not a Russian asset?” one wrote. “Until then they are not exonerated.”
“We need to subpoena every single record of every WaPo employee, place them all under 702 surveillance, and assume they are all Russian assets until they can be fully exonerated,” tweeted another. “New rules, sorry.”
This may sound harsh, but the Post only has itself to blame. Over the past three years, the paper has devoted itself to treating Trump’s every word as a serious statement of deadly intent, and ran columns listing “18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset,” virtually guaranteeing that there will be a jeering crowd when the mask of self-righteousness slips to reveal hypocrisy.
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