On Thursday, speaking to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Retired Gen. Keith Alexander, the former director of the National Security Agency, reported that Russia, using bots nicknamed “Bernie Brothers,” tried to foment dissent between Bernie Sanders supporters and Hillary Clinton supporters in 2016, then focused on increasing the polarity between Republicans and Democrats.
Alexander told Democratic committee co-chair Sen. Mark Warner, “Senator, I think what they were trying to do was drive a wedge within the Democratic Party between the Clinton group and the Sanders group. And then in our nation between Republicans and Democrats.”
Roughly two weeks ago, Huffington Post reported that Sanders supporters noticed in 2016 that they were being flooded with attacks on Hillary Clinton that could be traced to Eastern European countries like Macedonia and Albania. Others appeared to be based in Panama and the U.S.
The stories included lurid tales of Clinton murdering her political opponents or using body doubles.
On Thursday morning, counterterrorism expert Clinton Watts told the Senate Committee that Russia is not done with its cyber-operations against America; he added that Russia plants conspiracy theories that will appeal to President Trump at times when the president is likely to be online.
Watts stated, “Part of the reason active measures have worked in this election is because the commander-in-chief has used active measures at times against his opponents … I can tell you right now, today, that gray outlets, that are Soviet-pushing accounts, tweet at President Trump during high volumes when they know he’s online, and they push conspiracy theories.”
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