As the months have dragged on and no actual proof of Donald Trump colluding with the Russians has emerged, liberals are increasingly turning to an unlikely source to help further the Trump-Russia narrative.
Louise Mensch is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the UK who has become a popular figure in the Trump “resistance” because of her obsession with finding a connection between the president and Russia.
Mensch is by no means an objective source — emails released by WikiLeaks show her secretly offering unsolicited advice to the Clinton campaign on how to beat Trump, even going so far as to propose and draft a campaign ad for the campaign to use against the real estate mogul. At the time, Mensch was heading up Heat Street, a right-leaning new media website, although she has since taken, and then left, a different position at News Corp, Heat Street’s parent company.
Since leaving Heat Street, Mensch has turned to writing about her Trump-Russia theories on her blog, Patribotics.
Mensch, who did not return TheDC’s interview request by press time, has shown a proclivity to blame — often without any evidence — almost any negative event in the world on Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence services. The jihadist bombing of a German soccer team’s bus? She blames Russia. The 2014 Ferguson riots that spawned the Black Lives Matter movement? Mensch blames Russia. Democrats failing to score a huge upset in the special election for Georgia’s 6th District? Mensch blames Russia. Low African-American turnout for Hillary Clinton? It wasn’t Hillary’s fault, Mensch says — it was Russia’s. The 15-year-old girl with whom serial pervert Anthony Weiner traded explicit messages? That was actually a Russian plot personally ordered by Putin, if you take Mensch’s word for it. The 2013 death of conservative media figure Andrew Breitbart? Mensch said she “absolutely” believes Putin was behind it.
Nevertheless, prominent liberals have continued to promote Mensch and her work.
On Wednesday, DNC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson promoted a Mensch theory, unsupported by any hard evidence, that Russia has compromising material on Republican Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Watson used Mensch’s theory to suggest that Chaffetz isn’t running for re-election in 2018 because of dirt Russia holds on him. (RELATED: DNC Spokeswoman Promotes Theory That Russia Has Dirt On Chaffetz)
Ned Price, a former Obama White House staffer, shared a link to a story on left-wing website the Palmer Report that also claimed Russia has compromising information on Chaffetz.
Screenshot/Twitter
The Palmer Report, which was recently mentioned in a story in The Atlantic about “fake news aimed at liberals,” used one source for the story: Mensch.
Obama adviser Eric Schultz chimed in on Twitter, saying of the Palmer Report’s story, “too bad nobody flagged this earlier.”
Liberal media sources have promoted Mensch’s work as well.
Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC host now hosting a web show for GQ Magazine — “The Resistance” — promoted another Mensch theory on Tuesday.
Olbermann quoted a part of Mensch’s story that read, “Sources with links to the intelligence community say it is believed that Carter Page went to Moscow in early July carrying with him a pre-recorded tape of Donald Trump offering to change American policy to make it more favorable to Putin. In exchange, Page was authorized directly by Trump to request the help of the Russian government in hacking the election.”
Olbermann did his best to promote the theory on Twitter, tweeting out the video segment 38 times over two days.
MSNBC has invited Mensch on as a guest several times since Trump’s inauguration, presenting her as a credible source. She appeared on MSNBC as recently as last month. (RELATED: MSNBC Panelist Spouts Loony Conspiracy Theories On The Internet)
Just last month, The New York Times devoted space to running a Mensch op-ed about Russian hacking.
“It should be relatively easy to get at the truth of whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia over the hacking,” Mensch asserted.
The Times presented Mensch as a reliable source, describing her as a “New York-based journalist and author.”
Correction: Mensch announced her departure from News Corp. on March 28.
