Category: Audio Posts: Selected Articles

CNN
 — 

Ex-President Donald Trump responded to a second apparent assassination attempt that he blames on incendiary political rhetoric by inflaming the situation even more.

When a bullet grazed his ear in a horrific shooting that killed a rally goer in July, Trump initially acted like a changed man, telling The Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito he had a chance to bring the country and the world together — although that aspiration did not last any longer than the opening paragraphs of his convention speech.

After the Secret Service thwarted a gunman who had apparently lain in wait for the ex-president at one of his Florida golf courses Sunday, Trump’s reaction was different. He accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of inviting assassins to target him when they warn that he is a threat to democracy.

He told Fox News Digital on Monday without evidence that the alleged would-be shooter “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.” Trump went on: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

“It is called the enemy from within,” he said using a familiar trope of totalitarian leaders. Trump warned that “dangerous fools” like the suspect in Sunday’s incident listen to what Democratic leaders say and react to what he has claimed, falsely, is an orchestrated attempt by the White House to use the justice system to persecute him.

Trump’s running mate advanced an even blunter argument.

“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance said.

“I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out.”

The Republican vice-presidential nominee has recently denied he is guilty of incitement after his perpetuation of baseless claims that Haitian refugees have been eating pet dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, was followed by bomb threats to hospitals and schools.

Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams condemned Vance’s remarks about assassinations and the difference between liberals and conservatives.

“Would he want that? Why would you say that at a time when we’re talking about bringing down the temperature and changing the rhetoric and bringing the country together – unity – moving forward?” the Georgia Democrat said on “CNN This Morning” with Kasie Hunt. “We can disagree on policies, but we don’t want anyone to have an assassination attempt.”

Williams said it was “no secret” that she’s not a Trump supporter, but that she doesn’t want anyone to face a threat on their life. She added that she’s had to arrange personal security measures since becoming a member of Congress to protect herself and her family after facing threats.

The experience of being singled out for apparent attempted murder twice in two months would weigh on anyone. Trump is also facing an election, less than 50 days away, that is a dead heat between him and the vice president, according to most polls.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday that anyone who had been targeted for assassination “might be pretty sensitive, you might be pretty agitated, you might be pretty worried, so I think that is understandable.”

And seeking to decide an election by murdering a candidate for president ought to be repugnant to anyone that believes in democracy and the right of voters to choose their leaders. The exact motives of the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, are also not clear, although he was a longtime advocate for doing more to help Ukraine – a position that conflicts with Trump’s vow to end the war with Russia.

And the connection between a politician’s rhetoric and actions taken by isolated individuals is often hard to pin down even if the fear is always that a small minority of people might be motivated by a leader’s comments to provoke violence.

But Trump’s claims that Biden and Harris bear direct culpability underscore the extreme nature of his own political instincts.

His claim that their warnings about his supposed threat to democracy risk getting him killed is particularly stark. By implication, he’s saying that it is illegitimate for his opponents to point out the truth: that his past behavior — in seeking to steal the 2020 election and spreading false claims that this year’s voting will be corrupt — suggests that he poses a danger to America’s democratic system. His position, which looks like an attempt to stifle free speech, may also be a dark harbinger of how he would behave if he won a second term.

Trump played a similar political card at last week’s presidential debate when Harris raised his threat to terminate the Constitution and to weaponize the Justice Department against his political enemies. She said that since the Supreme Court and Vance wouldn’t stop Trump if he was back in the White House, “It’s up to the American people to stop him.” The vice president was clearly speaking in a political context, but Trump replied: “I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me.”

Despite the fierce political exchanges, there was one moment that recalled lost political normality on Monday. Biden and Trump had a telephone conversation, and the president conveyed his relief that his erstwhile rival was safe. The Republican nominee said in a statement to CNN that it was “a very nice call.”

Incitement and inflammatory rhetoric are often in the eye of the beholder. Republicans were angered, for instance, by Biden’s claim in August 2022 that the philosophical underpinning of the MAGA movement was like “semi-fascism.” (The charge did not become a staple of the president’s rhetoric). New York Rep. Daniel Goldman, a Democrat, said last year in an interview that Trump needed to be “eliminated” — a comment that Vance referenced on Monday. Goldman quickly apologized for his “poor choice of words” and said that he wished no harm to Trump.

But if Democrats are to blame for sometimes going over the top, Trump has made a political brand out of the most outlandish rhetoric uttered by a president or ex-president in the modern history of the United States. The scale and intensity of his invective dwarf anything that the Democrats have flung at him. He calls Harris a “fascist” in almost every public appearance — for instance, he said on August 26 in Virginia that “we have a fascist person running who’s incompetent.” He used similar rhetoric on August 23, August 17, and August 3 in campaign appearances.

Earlier this year, he claimed Biden was running a “Gestapo administration” referring to the genocidal Nazi secret police. He parroted the language of some of history’s worst tyrants by calling his political opponents “vermin” and by warning that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the United States.

And when he refused to concede that he lost the 2020 election, Trump called supporters to Washington, DC, and told them to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country anymore. Then his supporters smashed their way into the US Capitol, to try to thwart the certification of Biden’s victory. Trump has since called those arrested over the events of January 6, 2021, political prisoners and said he’d look at pardoning them if he wins back the White House in November.

Even now Trump is warning he will only accept the result of this year’s election if he deems it fair and has warned he will seek to jail officials and political opponents if he wins back power.

“He plays to people’s fear, he plays to people’s anxiety. He defines us with hate and fear,” Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell said Monday at a canvassing event for Harris. “This violence has to stop, but we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to it,” she said, adding, “He has not said he’ll accept the election results.”

Social media has often helped Trump inject bile into political life. After Sunday’s incident, one of his most prominent supporters — Elon Musk, who owns X — questioned why Trump had faced two apparent assassination attempts and his rivals had not encountered any. “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk wrote in the post that he later deleted. He later argued the post had been a joke, although given America’s violent political history and assassinations of four US presidents, it’s hard to see how people might find such quips funny.

The rhetoric of Trump and his allies has also made life dangerous for others. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s former infectious diseases expert, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins this year that when he is assailed, for instance, by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in congressional hearings, the pace of death threats against him rises. “(There is) a segment of the population out there that believe that kind of nonsense,” Fauci said.

Media organizations and election workers have also faced threats when on the wrong end of Trump’s baseless attacks. Prosecutors and judges need extra security while assigned to Trump cases and targeted by his daily screeds.

And even as the shocking aftermath of another apparent attempt on Trump’s life plays out, the impact of his and Vance’s rhetoric is evident in Springfield, Ohio.

After Trump amplified the false claims in the debate, Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine deployed the state highway patrol to monitor city schools that faced bomb threats. Elsewhere in Springfield, classes at Wittenberg University were held remotely Monday while campus police and local law enforcement assessed emailed threats of a bombing and a campus shooting that targeted “members of the Haitian community,” the university said.

In his interview on “State of the Union,” Vance said that any suggestion that he or Trump had acted in a way that caused such threats was “disgusting.”

It’s also disgusting that anyone would consider assassinating a former president running in a democratic election. Yet the historical record shows that while Trump has become a victim of a toxic political culture, he’s also one of its primary instigators.

London
CNN
 — 

It is exactly the kind of attention Ukraine did not need. Since the start of clashes with Russia over its future in 2003, Ukraine has carefully avoided the sort of political violence Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of.

Yet now, at arguably the most crucial point of the conflict, Routh’s vocal support for Kyiv has somehow been seized upon by Russian echo chambers after he was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump.

Someone like Routh was quite easy to meet in Ukraine in the opening months of Russia’s full-scale war in 2022. Border crossings and railway stations were often haunted by whispering, unshaven expatriates of questionable military provenance, trying to conjure the idea that the very real and painful struggle of Ukraine was something they had a pivotal role in. As the conflict has dragged on, the fantasists have faded, and the resumes of dozens of Western volunteers been vetted, or become less relevant as their alleged experience has been tested in combat. The most brutal fighting Europe has seen since the 1940s, the Ukrainian front line has never been less of a place for amateur thrill-seekers.

Yet Routh tried his best to associate himself with the fight against Russia, expressing support for Ukraine in dozens of X posts that year, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”

He protested in Kyiv after Russia invaded, and even tried to enlist, but, aged 56 with no military experience, was turned away. He tried to help recruit foreigners to fight but seems to have failed. The New York Times even interviewed him about a plan to obtain fake passports so Afghan veterans could come from Pakistan or Iran to Ukraine to help resist Russia’s onslaught. His offers to recruit large numbers to fight for Ukraine from across the world “were not realistic” said Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command. He told CNN, “The best way to describe [Routh’s] messages is – delusional ideas.” Routh never worked with them – a common refrain from across Ukraine’s military heard Monday.

Kyiv has enough on its plate now, other than explaining how little it had to do with the author of “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.” This – Routh’s title for his self-published book – does not demand its author’s ideas are taken too seriously.

But already, Moscow’s prolific echo chambers have begun to fashion a narrative in which US support for Ukraine is somehow extremist. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, asked what he thought about the assassination bid, said, according to Reuters: “It is not us who should be thinking, it is the US intelligence services who should be thinking. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences.”

<a href=”http://RT.com” rel=”nofollow”>RT.com</a>, a Kremlin-run English news outlet, also highlighted Routh’s interest in Ukraine, writing that “Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that if the suspect’s identity is confirmed, it is clear he is ‘obsessed with the Ukraine war, which is funded by the US.’”

Do not expect any majorly new or intelligent arguments to surface about the war in Ukraine in the weeks ahead. But instead, anticipate a slow drip of some new voices, and some of the usual, suggesting the war in Ukraine cannot be won, that Putin must be given a chance to negotiate a deal (even one that lets him keep the chunk of Ukraine he has stolen), and that there is an unhealthy infection of extremists in the ranks of those who feel they must – as Routh once said – “fight and die” for Ukraine.

None of this helps Ukrainians who genuinely must fight and die to protect their homes and families. It particularly hampers Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, days before he is set to present a victory plan to the Biden administration. The clamor of support for Ukraine to receive US permission to fire longer-range US-supplied missiles at targets deeper inside Russian territory had been growing. It seemed likely last week that President Joe Biden would follow the course he’s taken when past decisions on arming Ukraine were presented to him, and consent – albeit very, very late – after public pressure from allies.

But now Zelensky’s press appearances may be dogged by questions about Routh, however absurdly distant from Kyiv’s agenda his apparent attack on a Florida golf course was. It will feed into the ultimate paranoia of US isolationists: that actions overseas which appear to benefit America’s global interests carry with them the risk of fomenting violence back home.

Routh’s political leanings and worldview were far from consistent, if not delusional. But in the breathy forum of random gibberish that is social media, they contribute to a narrative, for those who seek it, of support for Ukraine causing chaos in America. That the United States should just stay out of Putin’s war.

None of it connects with the savage reality Ukrainians face every night, shaken awake by Russian missiles, or losing loved ones to the ghastly attrition of the front lines.

Washington’s support for Kyiv is weighty and consequential when it lumbers into play, yet horrifyingly fragile when subjected to US electoral politics and the Republican party’s fickle grip on geopolitics. The sudden insertion of a wayward extremist like Routh is a loud, confusing wild card, at a time when support for Ukraine urgently needed a calm and balanced voice.

“During today’s meeting, I expressed my gratitude to my colleague for the historic decision to support the UN Resolution on the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. This decision will further strengthen the ties between our countries,” stated Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze at a joint briefing with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the Armenian delegation’s visit to Georgia, noting that the signing of a strategic partnership agreement would enhance Georgia-Armenia relations.

Irakli Kobakhidze conveyed his honour in hosting a representative delegation from Armenia. He recalled his visit to Armenia in March and thanked his Armenian counterparts for their warm hospitality.

“The relationship between Georgia and Armenia is founded on centuries of friendship and mutual respect between our peoples. I am pleased that this has now evolved into a strategic partnership that will foster the deepening of our relations.

I believe that the signing of a strategic partnership agreement has played a crucial role in enhancing our bilateral ties and has yielded tangible, practical outcomes.

Once again, during today’s meeting, I expressed my appreciation to my colleague for the historic decision to support the UN Resolution on the return of IDPs from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. This pivotal decision will undoubtedly further fortify the relationship between our nations,” he concluded.

Dear Prime Minister, I truly believe that we have a historic opportunity to end the conflicts in the South Caucasus and create sustainable peace in our region – we highly appreciate the efforts of the Georgian government – the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan told the Prime Minister of Georgia at the press conference.

According to him, Georgia’s policy is aimed at contributing to regional and international stability and peace.

As Pashinyan notes, the beneficiaries of the peace achieved in the South Caucasus are not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Georgia, Turkey and Iran.

“I am glad that I have come to friendly Georgia once again. Thank you very much for the traditional warm welcome and hospitality that my delegation received during the last period. We managed to expand the comprehensive cooperation between our countries in all fields. The best indicator of this is that in January of this year, the cooperation between Georgia and Armenia rose to the level of a higher strategic partnership. We have thus managed to establish an effective and viable mechanism of periodic contacts based on mutual interests as well as principles and democratic values ​​accepted by the wise peoples of our countries.

I must emphasize that Georgia and Armenia unconditionally recognized the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each country. I consider this fact one of the important factors to achieve stability and long lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

Dear colleagues, we had the opportunity to discuss a number of issues related to achieving lasting peace and stability in our region. I presented to my colleague the latest development information in the process of Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization. I must mention that during the difficult negotiations, within the framework of the delimitation-demarcation process with Azerbaijan, we managed to achieve some progress. Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement to operate within the framework of the delimitation process based on the provisions of the 1991 Almaty Declaration. Which means that the basis for this process will be the definition of administrative borders between the former Soviet republics. We expect that in the near future we will achieve practical progress in the delimitation of the Armenia-Georgia border. We have expressed common positions in this regard. I think you know that as a result of almost 2 years of negotiations, Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on 80% of the treaty establishing peace and interstate relations. We proposed that Azerbaijan sign up to the provisions that had already been agreed upon. It was also proposed to establish diplomatic relations and resolve all other important issues that are of mutual interest. Unblocking and full operation of all economic, infrastructure and communications is the topic of stability and economic development of the region, which we consider a priority of our government. Our idea on this issue is best reflected in the Crossroads of Peace project, which was created by the Armenian government and which I first shared with our international partners during the conference in Tbilisi.

Dear Prime Minister, I truly believe that we have a historic opportunity to end the conflicts in the South Caucasus and create lasting peace in our region. I am also sure that the beneficiaries of this peace are not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Georgia and Turkey. Iran will also benefit. That is why, despite all the difficulties, our government will steadily and unyieldingly continue to make all efforts to make peace in the region possible. We highly appreciate the efforts of the Government of Georgia, that your contribution was also made. Your policy is aimed at contributing to regional and international stability and peace,” Pashinyan said.

CNN
 — 

Ryan Wesley Routh put his enmity toward Donald Trump – the man he once supported but then dismissed as an “idiot,” a “buffoon” and a “fool” – at the center of a rambling and fanciful worldview that also fixated on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and what he called the “end of humanity.”

The 58-year-old, who was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on the former president, protested in Kyiv after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and committed his ideas to paper in a self-published 291-page book.

Authorities suspect Routh, who owns a small construction company in Hawaii, was planning to attack the former President as he played a round of golf on Sunday, with US Secret Service agents firing at a man with a rifle in the bushes near the golf club. He was later apprehended after being stopped on a nearby highway.

Routh appeared in federal court Monday and was charged with two counts, possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Kristy Militello, the federal public defender assigned to Routh’s case, declined to comment after the hearing.

For years, he criticized not only Trump but himself, describing Trump as “my choice” in the 2016 presidential election but later writing that he is “man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”

Here’s what we know about Routh so far.

Routh’s thoughts and fixations on global politics appeared idealistic to some who came across him, but his writings show how he became increasingly militant about the geopolitical forces he railed against.

His business pursuits, by contrast, appear relatively unremarkable. On Routh’s LinkedIn page, he said he started a company in 2018 called Camp Box Honolulu in Hawaii, which builds storage units and tiny houses. A story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said he donated a structure for homeless people.

During his court appearance on Monday, Routh said he was making $3,000 a month before his arrest, had “zero funds” in savings and had no assets beyond two trucks in Hawaii.

Routh also has ties to North Carolina, where public records show he registered as an “unaffiliated” voter without a party in 2012. He voted in that state’s Democratic primary in March of this year, according to public records.

Records from the state dating back decades also show Routh has had previous scrapes with the law – including being arrested in 2002 after he was pulled over by police and allegedly put his hand on a firearm, and then drove off and barricaded himself in a business premises.

He has also been involved in several court cases since the 1990s, with authorities repeatedly accusing him of failing to pay his taxes on time. Separately, judges have ordered him to pay tens of thousands of dollars to plaintiffs in various civil suits.

Routh became animated when writing about Trump, and he frequently weighed in on US and global current events on social media.

In June 2020, Routh appeared to say that he had voted for Trump in 2016, but that he had since withdrawn his support of the former president.

“I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I will be glad when you gone.”

Routh also mentioned Trump in his book, which appears on Amazon without a publisher listed, and is titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.”

In that publication, he described the former US president’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 as a “tremendous blunder” that drove Tehran closer to Moscow, which it then supplied with drones that have caused devastation across Ukraine.

He even commented on the first assassination attempt on Trump, when the former president was wounded by a gunshot during a rally in Pennsylvania in July. Routh encouraged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit those wounded in the incident, saying: “Trump will never do anything.”

Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s 2022 invasion also became central to Routh’s philosophy; he expressed support for Ukraine in dozens of X posts that year, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”

He also visited Ukraine in 2022, according to video and photos geolocated by CNN and interviews he gave to international media during his time there. In a flurry of Facebook posts last year, he tried to enlist Afghan conscripts to fight in the war, presenting himself as an off-the-books liaison for the Ukrainian government.

A representative from Ukraine’s foreign legion confirmed with CNN that Routh had contacted them several times but said he was never part of the military unit in which overseas volunteers fight.

Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command, told CNN over the phone that “the best way to describe his messages is – delusional ideas.”

“He was offering us large numbers of recruits from different countries but it was obvious to us his offers were not realistic. We didn’t even answer, there was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way.”

Newsweek Romania journalist Remus Cernea first met Routh in Kyiv’s Independence Square in June 2022, where the American was rallying people to join the foreign legion or to help Ukraine through various humanitarian aid organizations.

“For me, it’s a surprise because I viewed him as an idealistic innocent genuine person, without any murderous instinct,” Cernea told CNN following news of Routh’s detention in the United States.

According to Cernea, Routh described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “black and white… good versus evil” conflict.

In an interview with AFP news agency from Kyiv in April 2022, Routh said: “Putin is a terrorist, and he needs to be ended, so we need everybody from around the globe to stop what they’re doing and come here now and support the Ukrainians to end this war.”

He also weighed in on the political situations in Afghanistan, Taiwan and North Korea in his book. Routh has repeatedly voiced support for Taiwan and previously called for international intervention to protect the island against potential Chinese encroachment.

Routh’s eldest son, Oran, told CNN via text that Routh was “a loving and caring father, and honest hardworking man.”

“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” Oran wrote.

But other people have shared testimonies of tense interactions with Routh.

Hawaiian business owner Saili Levi told CNN he had paid Routh $3,800 up front to build a trailer for his business. But when Levi came to Routh’s shop to review his work, it was shoddy, he said.

Levi said when he asked Routh to improve the work via email, Routh ranted at him.

“He just kind of started ranting about, you know, ‘You think because you have money, you’re better than me?’” Levi said, adding that Routh also mentioned having gone to Ukraine to fight against Russia.

“I kind of decided maybe I should just let it go for the sake of my family,” Levi recalled.

Curt Devine, Isabelle Chapman and Daniel Medina contributed to this report.

A former volunteer for Ukraine’s International Legion has branded Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, as “delusional” and a “liar” over his claims that he recruited for the Ukrainian organization.

Routh, 58, is in custody after an attempt was made on the life of Trump, 78, at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where shots were fired on Sunday.

Trump survived “what appears to be an assassination attempt” the FBI said. The former president was “safe following gunshots in his vicinity” at his golf club, the Trump campaign said.

The suspected gunman claimed in a June 2022 interview with Newsweek Romania that he recruited volunteers for the International Legion Defense of Ukraine, a unit of Ukraine’s Ground Forces.

He also spoke with The New York Times in 2023, claiming to have attempted to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to the Ukrainian army.

Russia has seized on his claims to push the unfounded allegation that Routh could have been recruited by Ukraine to make an attempt on the life of the former U.S. president, who has criticized the scale of U.S. support and military aid for Kyiv amid the war, which is now in its third year.

“I wonder what would happen if it turned out that the failed new Trump shooter Routh, who recruited mercenaries for the Ukrainian army, was himself hired by the neo-nazi regime in Kiev for this assassination attempt?” asked former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

But the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine said in a statement that Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, North Carolina, had “never been part of, associated with, or linked” to it “in any capacity.”

Evelyn Aschenbrenner, a U.S. citizen from Detroit, Michigan, who worked with the International Legion beginning in March 2022—first in administration, and then as a recruiter—for a total of two years, also told Newsweek on Monday from Kyiv that they had been in contact with Routh since 2022, and that he is “delusional and a liar.”

Aschenbrenner, who left the International Legion in mid-June of this year, had warned on social media since June that Routh is “not, and never has been, associated with the International Legion or the Ukrainian Armed Forces at all.”

Routh messaged Aschenbrenner between March 2022 and March 2024, sending details of potential recruits, including a list of some 6,000 Afghani citizens. He would then become “hostile” and “manipulative” when told to refrain from doing so.

Newsweek has been sent an exchange of messages between Aschenbrenner and Routh.

“He said, ‘Oh you don’t really want to help Ukraine’. He was very emotionally, like, twisting like that, where if you refused to help or pushed back against him, he was very accusatory. He never listened to anything that I said, he didn’t register,” Aschenbrenner said.

“He sent me a PDF of, like, 6,000 Afghani citizens. They can’t legally enter Europe. He was combative. He was argumentative. He refused repeatedly to understand basic army policy,” Aschenbrenner said.

An encounter with Routh on August 24, 2022, Ukraine’s independence day, is when Aschenbrenner “first really realized [Routh] was not firing with all pistons up there.”

“There was an increased security alert [due to] strikes from Russia, and because of that, there was curfew. I think it was 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. in Kharkiv, and [he wanted] to get a foreign person over the border to join Legion. And I’m like, not today, dude,” Aschenbrenner said.

“I do think he seemed to be a little delusional, I don’t think he thought he was a real recruiter, but I thought he really he believed that he was helping Ukraine, and he was the only one who could help Ukraine doing what he did.”

Aschenbrenner was angered when Routh in February 2023 posted their personal details online, promising individuals the chance to fight in Ukraine.

“[He] started giving out my phone number, another person’s phone number, and after getting phone calls from soldiers from Uganda…I had several arguments with him on Signal to say, this is not a service that anyone wants or needs.”

“I don’t know if he’s ever been in Ukraine, but he seemed to have this…like he was the only one who could help save Ukraine — if you didn’t do exactly what he wanted when he wanted, somehow you were helping Russia win. I was like, that’s dramatic,” Aschenbrenner said.

Aschenbrenner added: “There seems to be a lot going on. There was delusions of grandeur and [he was] very disconnected from reality.”

Routh could appear in a Florida court on Monday, according to media reports.

In his interview with Newsweek Romania, he had said: “The question as far as why I’m here … to me, a lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil. This is a storybook, you know, any movie we’ve ever watched, this is definitely evil against good.”

A Semafor report published on March 10, 2023, cited Routh as the head of the International Volunteer Center (IVC) in Ukraine, a private organization that works to “empower volunteers” and other nonprofit groups that work to “enhance the distribution of humanitarian aid throughout Ukraine,” according to the IVC’s website.

Routh’s account on X, formerly Twitter, has been suspended. However, Newsweek has seen their contents before the suspension.

On X, Routh posted dozens of times in support of Ukraine. In March 2022, for example, shortly after the full-scale invasion, he wrote: “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE … Can I be the example We must win.”

Earlier posts appear to indicate a shift in his political stance. In June 2020, in a post tagging Trump’s account, he wrote: “While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving.”

“I will be glad when you gone,” he added.

More recently, his support for Ukraine continued. In April 2024, Routh tagged Elon Musk in another X post, writing: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putins Black sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via <a href=”mailto:worldnews@newsweek.com”>worldnews@newsweek.com</a>.

A Justice Department (DOJ) indictment revealing Russia’s use of conservative influencers to peddle its viewpoints has shined a light on its newest tactics for tapping into existing right-leaning media to push its agenda.

An indictment unsealed by the department last week shows two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, contracted with conservative Tenet Media to offer lucrative contracts to its band of influencers, including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson.

Those influencers have mirrored the DOJ’s language, calling themselves unwitting participants in the scheme and in some cases victims of the operation.

The State Department on Friday indicated RT’s efforts were even broader than those revealed by the DOJ, noting the outlet similarly hired a French influencer to push its viewpoints there.

But the episode shows how the conservative media landscape is ripe for being co-opted by Russia, raising questions about the extent to which the U.S. adversary has sought to steer existing media.

Laura Thornton, senior director of global democracy programs at the McCain Institute, said the plot marked the first time the “DOJ has exposed these direct linkages.”

“We’ve seen Russian state media amplify existing narratives and use their bot farms or other sites to spread that information. But in terms of directly paying for an American media company to produce content on their behalf, this is quite unusual,” she told The Hill.

“Given that a lot of the false information and pro-Russia narratives actually come from within, it’s much easier to just throw a flame on those tinders,” she added. “The influencers themselves are claiming that they didn’t really change their content, which to me is almost even more alarming. They’re not being paid to change things because they already are [broadcasting] pro-Kremlin, pro-Russian disinformation narratives.”

The DOJ didn’t identify the players involved, but details in the indictment make clear some identities, including that of Tenet Media, which like the company listed in the filing describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”

Its owners, Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, took in some $10 million in contracts from sources they referred to in internal communications as “the Russians.” 

The two relayed the name of a fake investor, Eduard Grigoriann, to influencers who were paid handsomely for a series of videos that were in fact funded by the Russian government through two employees of RT.

One of those employees, Elena Afanasyeva, later “edited, posted, and directed the posting … of hundreds of videos” at Tenet.

Some of the content reviewed in the indictment promoted key Russian talking points, including a video of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson visiting a Russian grocery store. Though one producer at Tenet initially raised concerns that it “just feels like overt shilling,” they acquiesced and shared the content the next day.

In another case, Afanasyeva wanted to promote the “Ukraine/U.S. angle” in the wake of a terror attack in Moscow, despite reports indicating ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, one of the influencers said “he’s happy to cover it.”

Many of the influencers involved in the plot say they were unaware of the Russian involvement and never shifted their content. 

“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical,” Pool said in a statement on social platform X shortly after the indictment was unsealed.  

Pool and Johnson referred to themselves as victims of the plot.

“The FBI has notified me that I am the victim of a crime. [Attorney General] Merrick Garland said the same in his press conference. I am the only person who ever had editorial control of my program. Period,” Johnson said on X.

In another statement, he said he had been involved in a “standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated.”

But they’ve faced criticism for not being more skeptical of the high-dollar contracts they were offered, as well as questions about why their messaging was appealing to a U.S. adversary in the first place.

“They’re also claiming, of course, that they were themselves deceived, in which case, I guess the question really is, they should ask themselves why they were chosen — why their messaging is in such lockstep with Russian disinformation in the first place,” Thornton said.

“Why do we have this constituency in our country? And that, to me, is more concerning and makes life a lot easier for the Russians, because then they can just retweet what our own congressperson is saying or our own media.”

Ben Dubow, a fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis who studies disinformation efforts, said the large existing followings are a major part of the appeal for Russia. Johnson and Rubin have about 2.5 million followers on YouTube, while Pool has 1.4 million.

“I would not be shocked if there were other incidents of this. What attracts Russia to influencers like this is kind of the isolationism, which is very directly related to Russian interest. The other is just promoting cleavages within American society. And there are a lot of people on social media who make their living essentially doing exactly that,” he said.

But others see a severe lack of due diligence on the part of influencers who were receiving significant sums to make the content. One of the influencers was paid $400,000 a month while another was given $100,000 per video.

They were given a false profile of Grigoriann after asking about the source of financing, though the indictment notes there were little results on Google for anyone by that name and none associated with the bank he claimed to work with.

“I would love to be a victim of a crime where I get paid $400,000,” quipped A.J. Bauer, a professor at the University of Alabama who studies right-wing media.

“Even if they were unaware that Russia was the one providing the funds, if somebody’s giving you $100,000 per podcast episode, that should raise some questions, right? Who’s bankrolling this?”

He described the conservative media landscape as a highly entrepreneurial space that has long been funded by wealthy Americans seeking to influence public opinion — a legal activity when pushed by U.S. citizens.

He said there will likely be a lasting impact for the influencers.

“Among right wing folks there has been an increasing sympathy with Russia, but I still think that a lot of conservatives and right wingers don’t necessarily want to follow somebody who is overtly engaging in propaganda or who would be willing to, and so I think that’s probably going to damage their reputations mid-term,” he said.

“I would imagine that they can kind of rebrand themselves [in the long term]. They’ve done so multiple times already.”

The consequences have been most severe for Chen and Donovan, who have gone silent since the indictment dropped. The indictment notes that neither ever registered as a foreign agent, raising the specter that additional charges could be coming.

YouTube took down content from Chen and Tenet Media while Glenn Beck’s Blaze Media said it had terminated a contract it had with Chen. The YouTube channels for Pool, Johnson and Rubin were not impacted.

Tenet Media declined to respond to a request for comment. 

Russia has been ramping up its use of RT, which the State Department accused Friday of having ties to Russian intelligence. 

“We know that for over two years, RT has leveraged its extensive state funding to covertly recruit and pay social media personalities and provide them with unbranded content to disseminate and promote around the world while hiding RT’s involvement,” the State Department wrote.

It’s not clear, however, just how wide an audience the Russian-backed content reached. 

The indictment says the company posted about 2,000 videos since launching, generating about 16 million views. 

But Dubow said that’s not as much of a splash as one might think. He said advertisers expect to spend $10-$15 per every thousand views while content creators often get about $1 for every thousand impressions they generate. By either metric, Russia was spending orders of magnitude more than market rates to reach a relatively small audience. 

“It really does look like the influencers got the best of this deal, as opposed to Russia really achieving all that much with it,” he said.

But Thornton stressed that $10 million is a drop in the bucket for Russia, which has advanced its influence operations since 2016 and also faces its own internal unrest as it engages in war with Ukraine.

“Russia has never had more of an incentive to interfere with our elections than it does today,” she said.

“They are facing an existential threat, right? And the war in Ukraine and how it turns out for Russia is their entire future. And a lot of it is going to depend on who the next president of the United States is. So if ever they’ve had an incentive to get involved in our politics, I would say this is the year.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian state media have cited Larry C. Johnson in hundreds of news articles and TV reports. They frequently present his views on the Russian-Ukrainian war and the West’s role, referring to him as a former CIA analyst, despite his short tenure with the agency more than 35 years ago. The Kremlin uses Johnson’s often false and misleading claims to promote pro-Russian narratives and improve its image.

RIA Novosti

RIA Novosti is a Russia’s major domestic state news agency with a website audience of upwards of 10 million daily users. From August 1, 2023, to September 12, 2024, Ria.ru published 403 materials citing Johnson’s statements.

On August 8, 2023, RIA Novosti — citing Johnson’s interview with YouTube channel Redacted — reported that “U.S. intelligence agencies are planning to assassinate Zelenskyy.”

Thirteen months later, the Ukrainian president is alive and well and regularly travels to the front to personally award troops of the nation’s armed forces.

On April 22, 2024, RIA Novosti, quoting Johnson’s interview with the YouTube channel Dialogue Works, stated that by “end of summer, maybe sooner,” Ukraine will lose the war to Russia and the Ukrainian city of Odesa, which he called Russian, will come under Moscow’s control.

In reality, Ukraine not only didn’t surrender but also launched a successful counteroffensive, capturing nearly 1,300 square kilometers of Russia’s Kursk region.

As for Odesa allegedly being a Russian city, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a similar false statement on December 15, 2023. Voice of America debunked Putin’s claim.

Odesa was founded in the 14th century as the Tatar fortress Khadzhibey and passed through Lithuanian, Polish and Turkish control before Russia took it by force in 1792. Russia renamed it Odesa in 1795 and ruled it for 126 years.

For the past 105 years, Odesa has been part of Ukraine. Contrary to Russian imperial myths, the city was never predominantly Russian; by 2001, Ukrainians were the majority, and as of 2015, 68% of residents were ethnic Ukrainians.

Sputnik

Sputnik is another Russian state-run news agency, and since August 8, 2023, it has published 280 materials with quotes from Johnson.

On March 31, Sputnik, citing Johnson’s interview on the YouTube channel Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom, claimed that the March 22, 2024, terrorist attack at Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow was allegedly organized by Ukraine through an intermediary, with the U.S. and Great Britain as the masterminds behind the entire “operation.”

This false statement by Johnson coincides with the Kremlin’s information campaign blaming Ukraine and the West for this terrorist attack.

Russia ignored the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the attack, which included evidence such as video footage of the terrorists in action. Instead, the Kremlin intensified its propaganda efforts following the IS claim.

Other major Russian media outlets

The state-owned broadcaster Russia Today, or RT, has published 163 articles with Johnson quotes and videos.

On August 29, 2023, RT, citing Johnson, reported a pro-Kremlin hoax that “Zelensky very well could be ousted in a coup within the next three to four weeks because of the great disgruntlement among troops on the eastern front.”

Pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia published 359 articles citing Johnson.

On August 8, 2023, Izvestia reported that, according to Johnson, Ukrainian air defenses had been almost completely destroyed, “so that Russian aircraft can now fly unhindered or almost unhindered throughout the territory of Ukraine.”

In fact, in August 2023, Russian aircraft were avoiding entering Ukrainian airspace to stay out of range of Ukraine’s air defense systems.

The Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta had 299 news items with Larry C. Johnson’s name.

On June 16, 2024, Rossiyskaya Gazeta published Johnson’s unsubstantiated prediction, aligned with Kremlin narratives, stating: “If the West rejects Moscow’s peace plan, the Kyiv regime could soon lose control not only of Odesa but also of the capital.”

Lenta.ru, a mainstream news site owned by the Russian government through a subsidiary of the Sberbank state bank, published 445 articles containing statements by the “former CIA analyst.”

In January 2024, Johnson gave an interview to Channel One, a Russian state-owned TV channel, in which he promoted narratives indistinguishable from Kremlin propaganda: Ukraine has no chance in a war with Russia, Ukraine’s air force and air defenses are destroyed, Russia is an industrial giant, and the West cannot compete with it.

Site