Information campaign currently underway to push the Mollie Tibbetts murder story.
Started in pro-Trump media, after news of Manafort convictions and Cohen confession broke. Now picked up by Russian bots/trolls and a GOP Congressman.
This effort hasn't peaked yet
(THREAD)
@RVAwonk
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Nicholas Grossman Retweeted Nicholas Grossman
Manafort/Cohen were the lead story basically everywhere, but not Fox or Breitbart. Their main focus was a single murder in Iowa. It checked all their boxes: illegal immigrant from Mexico, white female victim. See this short thread
https://twitter.com/NGrossman81/status/1032032410194649088 …Nicholas Grossman added,
Nicholas Grossman @NGrossman81FOX EDITORIAL ROOM -Crap. Manafort found guilty. Cohen plead guilty. What do we do? -Bury it. -Can't. Too big. -Whatabout Hillary? -Never got convicted. -Should've! -Not enough. Anything else? -Illegal immigrant... -Go on. -From Mexico... -I like it. -Murderer! -YES! Go, go, go! pic.twitter.com/nmmb4nrxtCShow this thread2 replies 5 retweets 10 likesShow this thread -
MAGA Twitter pushed the murder story as well, with some trying to add a media bias angle: 3/x
@RVAwonkpic.twitter.com/nUWJDuCNdL
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likesShow this thread -
Nicholas Grossman Retweeted Rep. Steve Scalise
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), a Republican House leader, doubled-down on Fox's efforts to link this single murder in Iowa to national immigration policy, using it to attack the Democrats (and also to not talk about Manafort or Cohen). 4/x https://twitter.com/SteveScalise/status/1032030497491349507 …
@RVAwonkNicholas Grossman added,
Rep. Steve ScaliseVerified account @SteveScaliseWhat will it take for Democrats to renounce their dangerous open borders policies and start to put American citizens first? It’s time they stop blocking common sense bills to restore the rule of law in this country before we see another senseless tragedy like this. https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1032017830496149511 …2 replies 5 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
Today, the Mollie Tibbetts story is being pushed by 600 Twitter accounts associated with Russian influence operations (tracked by the Alliance for Security Democracy). Currently, "mollietibbetts" is their number 1 trending topic, and number 4 hashtag. 5/x
@RVAwonkpic.twitter.com/TSlSqQaYCL
2 replies 28 retweets 26 likesShow this thread -
Often, pro-Trump influence operations aided by Russian bots/trolls get a boost from Russian government media. However, RT has Manafort/Cohen up top. Going with "adds no weight to Mueller's collusion probe." It'll be interesting to see if RT picks up the Mollie Tibbetts story 6/xpic.twitter.com/CmzvLpFDMV
2 replies 2 retweets 11 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @NGrossman81
This is the same as the
@Reuters headline to a story written by@brenpiers, (Brenden Pierson:pic.twitter.com/kCOHyrDc25
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Not exactly. Reuters' attributes it to Giuliani, RT's states it. Reuters specifies "government's charges against Cohen," while RT goes for more general "proof that Manafort & Cohen are criminals." And RT says Mueller's Russia collusion probe, while Reuters doesn't mention Russia
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