Drew HoldenVerifizierter Account

The worst offender was @nytimes, who broke the original story and went on to convince the families of soldiers who had been KIA that perhaps the Russians were to blame and President Trump didn’t care. Will we get a follow up? Will the families?pic.twitter.com/FTEkqRaPTn

But they were far from alone. @CNN pushed the conspiracy theory just as frequently as anyone did. You’ll notice that, while some of the stories note the bounties are “alleged”, eventually CNN dropped that, despite the narrative being disputed (and having since fallen apart).pic.twitter.com/aeXuJlikuc

@CNN also made a habit of having elected Dems on to suggest a path forward on these unverified allegations, glossing over the fact that they may or may not even be true. Here’s @SenGillibrand and @SenDuckworth. (More on electeds later)pic.twitter.com/CG2ffknKKf

@brianstelter, I’m asking you earnestly: will you retract this story? Or at least amend it significantly, given the implications of your reporting? If not, why not?pic.twitter.com/7yoJdreLFw

@washingtonpost gave Trump Four Pinocchios on a fact check when he said that the intel - which, again, was unverified and has since evaporated - was even disputed. I mean, cmon!pic.twitter.com/jb7bwswb0H

But probably the most unhinged in their insistence was @MSNBC. They pushed this conspiracy theory time and time again across their platform as if the allegations were rock solid. Turns out, they weren’t. @FrankFigliuzzi1, @Lawrencepic.twitter.com/PPJY9NlLAU

@MSNBC unsurprisingly got their chief Russian propagandist, @maddow/@MaddowBlog involved on this one, too. You would think that the Russian collusion hoax imploding would chasten her. Apparently not.pic.twitter.com/xJythsKzNr

But Maddow isn’t @MSNBC’s only conspiracy theorist. @JoyAnnReid was one of the most outspoken proponents of the Russian bounties conspiracy theory (these are only a handful of her tweets - she could’ve had a thread to herself).pic.twitter.com/45ATOpjMGU

The rush among outlets to go from explosive but unconfirmed reports to gospel truth was contagious. Here’s just a few stories from @politico:pic.twitter.com/fOnH7u1Fiu

I know it isn’t much of the money they get but it’s still jarring to me that @NPR is allocated money from US taxpayers. Notice particularly in this first one how the story is clearly framed as if the allegations are already beyond dispute.pic.twitter.com/aaOhyiK33S

@thedailybeast broke this story - which I’ve linked to at the end of the thread - which is good and important reporting. They also pushed the original bounties claim, too.pic.twitter.com/VDTv68Vc3i

But this only scratches the surface. Everyone was running with this story despite all the red flags. Here’s just a smattering from: @Reuters @AssociatedPress @NBCNews (yikes) @NYDailyNewspic.twitter.com/aUAEVQrT4r

And you’ll remember that plenty of politicians got involved in this narrative, too. @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris made it an important component of their campaign. How many voters’ minds might this conspiracy theory have changed?pic.twitter.com/zmxGUp1dCY

They weren’t alone. Lots of other powerful Democrats got involved. The Senate in particular went into a full court press. Here’s just a few, from: @SenDuckworth (the loudest critic on this, and worth doubling up on) @SenWarren @SenMarkey @CoryBookerpic.twitter.com/olKnqstc8q

And the lower house wasn’t any better. @SpeakerPelosi was probably the worst offender. In retrospect, it sure looks like Trump was right to call the story - forced out of terrorist detainees - a hoax.pic.twitter.com/F88t8P6sMr

But there were plenty of others in the House. Many of the names won’t shock you. Here’s: @RepSwalwell (go figure) @RepAdamSchiff (double go figure) @tedlieu (quickly becoming a favorite) and @sethmoulton (“treasonous behavior”)pic.twitter.com/l0XlWdLvBM

Of course the trolls, grifters, child predators and the rest of the ghouls at @ProjectLincoln were pushing this one hard. I try to have grace and charity on here. I can’t muster it with the Lincoln Project.pic.twitter.com/nYqw5PF4so

Obligatory @kurteichenwald and @SethAbramson mentions (just unhinged stuff here).pic.twitter.com/MK4NHEMqA1

It won’t surprise you that the Never Trump crowd were adamant about this story. Here we see @SteveSchmidtSES, @BillKristol, @therickwilson (plus @mollyjongfast, who like Rick has also blocked me) and no thread would be complete without @JRubinBloggerpic.twitter.com/uuBy3Gtnqn

All of the internet loudmouths were on this one. I’ve only got so much space and so much patience but here we’ll see: @DanRather @tribelaw (go figure) @KevinMKruse and @Scaramucci (this might be libel?)pic.twitter.com/CN7zibdvri