When a top Republican says Russian propaganda has infected the GOP

The GOP chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
— Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.)
— said that #Russian #propaganda had “infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

McCaul suggested conservative media was to blame.
“There are some more nighttime entertainment shows that seem to spin, like, I see the Russian propaganda in some of it
— and it’s almost identical [to what they’re saying on Russian state television]
— on our airwaves,” McCaul said.

He also cited “these people that read various conspiracy-theory outlets that are just not accurate,
and they actually model Russian propaganda.”


Asked which Republicans specifically he was talking about, McCaul said it was “obvious,” before staff intervened and asked that the conversation go off the record.


These comments are the most significant to date, but they’re not the only ones.


A GOP impasse over additional funding for #Ukraine’s defense against Russia
— combined recently with Tucker Carlson’s deeply weird promotion of Russia and Trump’s comments about not defending NATO allies from Moscow
— has apparently occasioned some self-reflection among Republicans about their colleagues and allies:

• Former vice president Mike Pence, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and a top aide to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ill.) have warned their party against serving as #apologists for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Recent presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Trump’s comments about not defending NATO allies, among others, “#empower #Putin.”

• And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) shot back at criticism from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) about Cornyn’s support for Ukraine, urging Paxton to “spend less time pushing Russian propaganda.”

Around the same time, former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said there is now “a #Putin #wing of the Republican Party.”
In 2022, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called the pro-Putin sentiments in some corners of his party “#almost #treasonous,” while allowing that perhaps his fellow Republicans were just #attention-#seekers.

“It’s unthinkable to me, it’s almost treasonous and it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that,” Romney said.

“But, of course, they do it because if they get shock value and it’s good to get more eyeballs and maybe make a little more money for them or their network. It’s disgusting.”

And then there is what may be the most famous example: when House GOP leaders in 2016 privately joked about Trump being #compromised by Russia, as later reported by The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/06/when-top-republican-says-russian-propaganda-has-infected-gop/