There’s a little gem packed away in this article from The Daily Beast on that GOP-only Senate delegation to Moscow. Apparently US diplomats who briefed the Senators told them that Russian officials are under the impression that only Democrats care about or are critical of Russian election meddling and incursions in Eastern Europe.
From the Beast …
Kennedy said he and his colleagues received briefings from officials at the U.S. embassy in Moscow ahead of the meetings. During those briefings, senators were informed that the Russian officials were under the impression that only Democrats were critical of Russia for its election-meddling and its incursions into eastern Europe and the Middle East.
I’d be curious to hear from Hill staffers or others with experience on codels. But I think these briefings would almost certainly be carried out by career State Department personnel or possibly Defense Attaches or, well, spies. So it likely wouldn’t be political appointees.
This is, needless to say, not terribly surprising. President Trump, head of the Republican party, routinely denies the election interference even took place, says Crimea should be part of Russia. Apparently the Russians think this applies to all Republicans. Why wouldn’t they?
