Random thought
The Senate passed the Russian sanctions bill 98-2. The two votes that decided Putin wasn't so terrible a guy:
Rand Paul (R-KY) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Now, Russia ran the mass propaganda campaign against Clinton well before the general election. The first public endorsement by Russia in the 2016 election was an endorsement by a close friend of Putin,
Aleksandr Dugin. In a video released in March, he praised Trump for running as an outsider while disparaging Clinton. He also took time to argue that the democratic primaries were "rigged" against Bernie, and that while Bernie had more support, Hillary would win by nefarious means. These arguments of "rigged primaries" may sound familiar, as they were touted by another friend of Putin,
Donald Trump, as well as
Bernie Sanders.
We also know that Russian trolls and bots pushed mass-misinformation during the primaries to this end, having the effect of creating a feeling that crucial moments in the democratic primary were part of a rigged system for Clinton. Notably, the lack of debates,
Super Tuesday having a lot of states with black people (who were also allowed to vote), Arizona/Nevada controversies (including no chair being thrown), and crying about super delegates while ignoring primary outcomes. Bernie benefited a lot from these as they painted Hillary as a corrupt insider and himself as the moral, courageous victim.
Another candidate, Jill Stein, received aid from Russia by way of free publicity on RT and positive coverage. Jill Stein was critical of both candidates, but focused more of her vitriol toward Clinton (even saying Trump would be better because he would "bring about the 'revolution' sooner"). While Stein did not keep a list of campaign rallies, a google search shows most of them were in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (if she were trying to maximize her votes, and not siphon Hillary's, she'd go to bluer states like California and Massachusetts). Jill Stein, even after Donald Jr. leaked communications he had with Russian agents, continues to call the collusion scandal "ludicrous." Stein is now being investigated in the
Russian collusion scandal, indicating that Putin's support of candidates expands from Trump to others that could hurt Hillary (and by proxy help Trump).
And yet, here we are. Putin employed his trolls to help Bernie because it would hurt Hillary, then Putin employed his trolls to benefit Donald, for among other reasons, to weaken Hillary should she win. After receiving this help from Putin, both Bernie and Trump oppose sanctions on Russia.
I sincerely believe Bernie was not in this collusion scandal, but against this backdrop, his recent vote on the sanctions bill is troubling.
(yes, I am trolling Dpareja)