New Poll Shows Majority of Dems Still Believe Trump Russia Collusion Hoax Was Real
Unwilling to admit that the lack of evidence meant it hadn’t happened, the media instead left the door open to the possibility that it was true — just not yet proven.
The New York Post’s Miranda Devine reported on Sunday night that a Rasmussen poll scheduled to be released on Monday found that 60% of Democrats continue to believe “the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election.”
Devine noted, “A whopping 69 percent of liberal voters still cling to the Russia collusion hoax, compared to 27 percent of conservatives, and 45 percent of moderates.”
According to Rasmussen:
Despite recent revelations about the corrupt origins of claims that Donald Trump “colluded” with Russia, a majority of Democrats still think it explains how Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters consider it likely that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election, including 24% who believe it’s Very Likely. Forty-nine percent (49%) don’t think it’s likely the 2016 election was affected by collusion with Russia, including 36% who say it’s Not At All Likely.
Rasmussen surveyed 1,014 Likely Voters between July 6 and 7. [Rasmussen polls are behind a paywall.]
Given the number of times this theory has been debunked, it is almost unfathomable that anyone still believes it. Yet the fact remains: many liberals and Democrats rely almost exclusively on legacy media for their news. Outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, along with networks like CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC, never fully acknowledged that it had been a hoax.
This story circulated for more than two years before it was finally discredited. And I must hand it to the Democrats: as far as hoaxes go, this one was remarkably effective. It was carefully planned and skillfully executed. The entire party was invested in the campaign against Trump and deeply committed to its success. This included Obama administration officials, agencies from that era such as the DOJ, FBI, and CIA, as well as the media. They were not going to let it go without a fight.
The first public indication that the story had been fabricated came in March 2019, when Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report revealed that, after a 22-month investigation costing taxpayers an estimated $40 million and casting a long shadow over Trump’s presidency, no evidence was found that Trump had colluded with the Kremlin to win the election.
Unwilling to admit that the lack of evidence meant it hadn’t happened, the media instead left the door open to the possibility that it was true — just not yet proven.
For example, in an April 1, 2019, article titled, AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s exaggerations about the Russia probe, the Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump is taking his interpretation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation well beyond the facts.
He says he’s been fully exonerated based on a four-page summary of Mueller’s nearly 400-page report and is casting himself as a victim of illegal practices by the FBI because the agency investigated him in the first place.
But Trump is overstating his case. The FBI has legal grounds to open a probe if investigators have information they believe could lead them to a crime, even if one is not ultimately found. And the summary released by Attorney General William Barr says Mueller did not reach a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.
The gaslighting from Democrats never stopped.
Earlier this month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian interference in the presidential election. The review, conducted by members of the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis, found that the ICA had been corrupted by then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Brennan’s determination to include the Steele dossier in the ICA was especially significant given that he knew in July 2016 it was nothing more than a collection of bogus stories commissioned by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign and conjured up by former British spy Christopher Steele and his sub-sources. And so did then-President Barack Obama.
We know that because in October 2020, Fox News reported that Brennan briefed Obama and others present during a July 28, 2016, Oval Office meeting on “Hillary Clinton’s purported ‘plan’ to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as ‘a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.”
[I reported on the review here.]
As trite as it may sound, Devine points out that the main reason so many Democrats and liberals still believe the Russian collusion hoax can be summed up by the old adage: “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.” There was a lot of ink spilled on this story and many people became firmly convinced it was true. They desperately wanted it to be true. Such deeply held beliefs don’t vanish overnight.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
It’s an entertainment choice about what world you want to live in. Like keeping up with the latest on Liz and Richard Burton. It’s not a question whether you believe it but whether you like it.
Works on both sides, by the way. It’s clickbait.
No, it does not work on both sides.
For instance, when James Comey announced that Hillary wouldn’t be prosecuted for her mishandling of classified documents and information, Dems and the MSM claimed she had been “exonerated.” Yet during Comey’s announcement, he read a laundry list of criminal offenses for which evidence was found, and then announced there’d be no prosecution because it couldn’t be shown that the offenses were committed “intentionally.” (Which is rich, because prosecuting the handling classified information “negligently” doesn’t require “intent.” Negligence means that obligatory care that should have been taken wasn’t taken. No “intent” needed.)
Ask a liberal if Clinton was “exonerated” by James Comey. I’d bet you’d get near 100% agreement that she was, even though no such “exoneration” was given.
It does not work “on both sides.” Leftists have a problem with facts. Also, it must be understood that large swaths of the general public are susceptible to government/media psyops, the purpose of which is to make them believe things that aren’t true. Once brainwashed, it’s very difficult to integrate facts contrary to the programming because the programming includes instructions to reject contrary information. It should be unsurprising that people with certain mindsets are more susceptible to such measures, while others are less susceptible. It just so happens that a truly independent, conservative mindset appears to be one such mindset that is better at resisting at least some types of psyops.
No, it does not work both ways. Name an instance where Republicans have perpetuated a story that’s not true. I could name several examples of Democrats telling stories that have been debunked – even by left-leaning fact checkers: Trump’s remarks following the 2017 Charlottesville, VA, Unite the Right rally; Trump admin. ignored intelligence showing that Russia offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops; claims that requiring IDs at the ballot box is racist; that police cleared protesters from Lafayette Square specifically so Trump could hold a photo op at St. John’s Church; the list is endless. Democrats are liars. Not sorry.
If you repeat the lie enough times it becomes… Journalism.
Ask the Pulitzer Committee.
First I agree with you that dramacrats are liars.
Next there are stories that have been perpetuated by some non-Republicans including some on here.
– Obamarama’s Kenya birth
– Obamarama’s Hawaii birth certificate
– Killary’s pizzagate
– Clinton’s death list
– Obamarama is gay and visited chigago bath house
– Obamarama (Michelle) is a transwoman
– Chelsea Clinton’s father is Web Hubell
– Various elections were stolen
These are the ones that come to my mind first. In general though if the story is propagated it is not done by the vast majority of elected republican officials except for a couple unhinged ones.
I tend to think of most of these more as hypotheses, hanging fire, awaiting final proof. Suppositions that have never been authoritatively disproven. Like, “The vaxx is ineffective, and in fact is actually dangerous for you” once was. And so many times, the solid proof appears years later, and then we can say we told you so.
Like, for instance, the “gay Obama” example — besides Obama’s own writings confessing his desire for men, there is a first-person witness — nay, participant — who testifies to at least two personal gay trysts with Obama, Tucker interviewed him last year. Or the Obama “birth certificate,” which fails the same forensic metadata tests as the recent Epstein corridor video. These unforced failures actually further bolster the credibility of the “deniers” of the official narrative.
Contrast, for example, the Russiagate hoax, for which we have actual papers on which one of the peripheral conspirators documents that he knows the claims to be a bunch of made-up s*t, but they’re going to run with it anyway. There’s not much excuse for continuing to believe in something like that.
I’ll give you one Fox ran with and even here at Legal Insurrection:
During Helene a bunch of Mexicans were arrested for alleged looting after Nolichucky flooded the 107 area. They were working as a crew and caught red handed. This is 20 miles from my house and 4 miles from acreage I am hoping to build on.
The “narrative,” which was easy to follow since true for other cases, was that they were illegals here to do what we see day in and day out. EVERY conservative news outlet ran with the story.
A week later the local news outlet reported they were cleared because they were acting on behalf of the owner who was in Florida. They were his workers, here legally on work permits and had done extensive farm work for him over the past year.
NO NEWS OUTLET BEYOND JOHNSON CITY RAN THE TRUE STORY CLEARING THEM OF WRONG DOING. I EVEN CHIMED IN ON THE COMMENT SECTION HERE NOTING THEY WERE CLEARED.
Any follow up???? None.
Is the narrative more important than the truth? Apparently even the news blog I hold in the highest esteem is not immune to tribal group at the expense of reality outside of their own narrative.
The right thing to do is to report the facts, not satisfy the customers need for justice porn.
“No, it does not work both ways. Name an instance where Republicans have perpetuated a story that’s not true.”
Let’s be fair. I had two pop to mind immediately:
1) USAID paid big bucks for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
2) Haitians in Springfield OH are eating people’s pets.
One of these gained a lot of traction among Republicans, though it wasn’t repeated (significantly) by Republican officials. The other gained traction all the way to the top of the chain.
We don’t hear as much about these hoaxes as we do about “very fine people” because they are not debunked in our own media bubbles.
I caught myself recently before parroting a claim that the US was one of the first nations to outlaw slavery. Turns out we were on the tail end of the trend.
Yeah, an entertainment hoax that lead to a special counsel who sent people to jail. For a hoax. What fun. Liberalism is a mental illness.
Scratch a liberal, find a fascist.
Maybe they can finally get Hillary nominated for 2028.
Could be. She should be senile to Biden standards right about then,
Stupid people believe stupid things
That’s fine. Well not fine but a fact of life. It becomes more concerning however when those stupid people support the slobs who weaponize federal law enforcement against their political opponents.
That’s our system now unfortunately. It wasn’t this way at founding. It was changed to support “democracy”, a system feared by the founders.
Changes could be made but won’t. Many would require constitutional amendments.
– Put in real requirements for elected office.
– Term limits for all political participants including judges and employees
– Change benefits to be in line with private sector,
– No retirement benefits for congress of president
– Put in voting requirements based on 1) skin in game, 2) knowledge.
– Raise voting age to 25
– Require civics to be taught
– Restrict federal government to only constitutional requirements
Classic Leftist fact checking. If they can spin it against those they hate they will. Conversely if they can spin a claim to support those they love, they will. So whether a claim is ‘factual’ depends on how it fits into their agenda. They start at their conclusion, assemble the facts, then determine their analysis.
lefty is the danger to society
“Socialism is the most dangerous thing that humanity has ever created.”
Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad
Humanity didn’t invent socialism.
Socialism is nothing more than the political expression of parasitism.
Parasitism was invented by nature billions of years ago..
The left is determined to keep this lie alive.
Just last week C4 aired a “documentary” called something like “Russia’s asset in the White House” here in the UK.
Anyone capable of thinking for themselves knew from the very beginning that this was a lie. However the left has been groomed by constant leftist tropes to believe, without question, everything the leftist media puts out there.
Hence why this lie won’t go away. The left believes with their entire soul that Trump is a Russian asset.
It’s a good thing. Refusing to be honest about why they lost means they will continue to lose, because they won’t fix it.
Hillary and *especially* Kalama were rubbish candidates parachuted in
True.
You need to test the efficacy of your interventions whenever you can, and Rasmussen has come through:
The Democrat indoctrination complex is pretty good at producing satisfactory long term results!
I’m sure there’s room for improvement, though.
The Trump Russian collusion hoax was sheer perfection. But that emboldened them and each subsequent hoax has been a little sloppier than the one before. By now, much of the public is onto them.
What was particularly tricky about the whole thing is that it was Hillary who was colluding with–at best–foreign operatives and at worst Russian ones.
Liberals are extremely annoying because they are so convinced that their opinions are based on fact. They are convinced that conservatives are stupid rubes whose views are antithetical to reality. There is no convincing liberals otherwise.
Here is a theorem for the National Capital Region: the truth is likely to be the exact opposite of that which has been proclaimed by those who are most sure of it.
If the Epstein tapes show a certain somebody getting a golden shower, then most Republicans will believe it too.
So they think the man who is about to start a world war with that very same Russia is in Putin’s pocket? That’s hysterical.
Cue Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman switching voices as he mutters in response to Private Joker’s confession: “Well… no sh*t….”
Not to mention Adam Schiff as censured for making most of the dossier but, Hillary was also working along side him. She got no consequences.
They basically took Biden’s live interview where she said in front of the whole world that he told them they would not get the $$$$ unless one of their officials were fired. That official was investigating Hunter. Biden’s final comment live was well son of a b**ch they got the money. All they had to do as Change names and dates to make up the dossier. See how simple?
Dem constituents never questioned their party. Heck the majority of them still think Biden was mentally fine and running the country so, forgive me if I can’t ever take them seriously.