Speaking to host Bill Maher on Friday, Malcolm Nance unleashed a host of wacky \u2018Russiagate\u2019 conspiracy theories \u2013 President Trump was convinced to run for president by Russia\u2019s top oligarchs; Trump and Putin have a plan to steal the 2020 election \u201calready hashed out;\u201d<\/em> and the terrible twosome used their recent Helsinki summit to plot the division of the Western world between them.<\/p>\n Nance, a 20-year Navy veteran cryptologist and private intelligence consultant, went on to call Vladimir Putin \u201ca former director of the KGB.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While Putin was briefly appointed to head the KGB\u2019s successor agency, the FSB, in 1997, he was a mid-level KGB officer before entering politics. Working in communist East Germany from 1985 to 1990, Putin eventually resigned from the agency as communist hardliners launched a coup d\u2019etat attempt against President Gorbachev in 1991, with Putin siding with the reformist leader.<\/p>\n At no point in his career did Putin lead or come close to leading the KGB.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s brief stint in charge of the FSB could have caused the mix-up, and Nance would be forgiven for the mistake, except he describes himself as an expert on all things Russian, and regularly appears on MSNBC to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. He\u2019s even written two books about it: \u2018The Plot to Hack America,\u2019 and most recently \u2018The Plot to Destroy Democracy,\u2019 a New York Times bestseller.<\/p>\n In \u2018The Plot to Destroy Democracy\u2019 \u2013 published two weeks before Trump\u2019s much-criticized meeting with Putin \u2013 Nance connects a web of unrelated dots to make the claim that Putin and Trump are conspiring to create an \u201cAxis of Autocracy,\u201d<\/em> all with no hard evidence. Publishers Weekly called the book \u201can unconvincing exaggeration of genuine misconduct into cartoonish supervillainy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n With US mainstream media pushing Russia-hate around the clock since Trump\u2019s election, it\u2019s no wonder that Nance\u2019s conspiracy-mongering and \u201ccartoonish supervillainy\u201d<\/em> landed him in front of the camera on one of the nation\u2019s most virulently anti-Trump networks.<\/p>\n The fact that his original areas of expertise are related to the Middle East and terrorism, as journalist Max Blumenthal pointed out, matters little. What does matter is that Nance can leverage his military experience to lend a sheen of credibility to the \u2018Russiagate\u2019 story.<\/p>\n Like so many other Russiagate pundits, Nance has zero expertise on Russia. He studied Arabic, served in the Middle East, marketed himself as a CT consultant and worked in the UAE. By rebranding, he found celebrity in the paranoid, credulous culture of Trump era liberals. https:\/\/t.co\/KxfaqsCAxS<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n With mainstream news media making all kinds of outlandish claims \u2013 that Russians write Trump\u2019s tweets<\/a>; Trump has been a KGB agent<\/a>\u00a0since 1987; Kanye West<\/a> is a Kremlin operative \u2013 Nance has found himself a lucrative niche. With his career depending on hysteria, why let the facts get in the way of a good soundbite?<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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