Such duplicity can't survive appeal

. "Spare me. That's what I mean. I don't need phony off-the-record after-the-fact friends."

Dem lawmaker drops hammer on GOPers ‘covering their butts’ by rushing to defend Vindman after Trump fired him
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/dem-lawmaker-drops-hammer-on-gopers-covering-their-butts-by-rushing-to-defend-vindman-after-trump-fired-him/

Saying “spare me,” Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) trashed the anonymous Republican lawmakers who contacted the New York Times to claim they tried to stop Donald Trump from firing EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to make it look like they cared.

Speaking with MSNBC host Kendis Gibson, the New York lawmaker expressed disgust with what he called their “cowardice,” while reacting to a New York Times report noting the alleged concerns of Republicans over the president’s actions.

“I think what you’re seeing there is pretty obvious,” Maloney stated. “You’re seeing vulnerable Republicans, after the fact, try to cover their butts by leaking to the New York Times that they want us all to know they were deeply troubled by this. And even though they took a vote that could have absolutely guaranteed that people like Lt. Col. Vindman would be hurt, would be made to pay the price for their fecklessness, for their cowardice, they want us to know they were troubled by it.”

“They’re going to continue to support this president, but they want the New York Times to know they secretly know it’s wrong,” he continued. “Spare me. That’s what I mean. I don’t need phony off-the-record after-the-fact friends.”

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President*

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/

One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked “Like” on the official pages of Donald Trump and his reelection campaign. Facebook’s algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like “In Trump We Trust.” I complied. I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers.

The president’s reelection campaign was then in the midst of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz aimed at shaping Americans’ understanding of the recently launched impeachment proceedings. Thousands of micro-targeted ads had flooded the internet, portraying Trump as a heroic reformer cracking down on foreign corruption while Democrats plotted a coup. That this narrative bore little resemblance to reality seemed only to accelerate its spread. Right-wing websites amplified every claim. Pro-Trump forums teemed with conspiracy theories. An alternate information ecosystem was taking shape around the biggest news story in the country, and I wanted to see it from the inside.

The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president’s conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video—served up by the Trump campaign—that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today?

As I swiped at my phone, a stream of pro-Trump propaganda filled the screen: “That’s right, the whistleblower’s own lawyer said, ‘The coup has started …’ ” Swipe. “Democrats are doing Putin’s bidding …” Swipe. “The only message these radical socialists and extremists will understand is a crushing …” Swipe. “Only one man can stop this chaos …” Swipe, swipe, swipe.

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The Trump campaign is planning to spend more than $1 billion, and it will be aided by a vast coalition of partisan media, outside political groups, and enterprising freelance operatives. These pro-Trump forces are poised to wage what could be the most extensive disinformation campaign in U.S. history. Whether or not it succeeds in reelecting the president, the wreckage it leaves behind could be irreparable.

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