{"id":33222,"date":"2018-07-27T13:05:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=33222"},"modified":"2018-07-27T13:05:14","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T20:05:14","slug":"the-bear-is-hunting-claire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/27\/the-bear-is-hunting-claire\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bear Is Hunting Claire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 19th century, British journalists used the bear as a derogatory symbol for Russia, calling that nation a brutish bully from the back woods.  Early in this century, Russia adopted the symbol and it now represents the United Russia Party, Putin’s Russian GOP.  Putin’s Pervert may be saying that Russia will interfere in the 2018 midterms to help Democrats, but the bear is after Claire.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0727Hackers\"<\/p>\n

The Russian intelligence agency behind the 2016 election cyberattacks targeted Sen. Claire McCaskill<\/a> as she began her 2018 re-election campaign in earnest, a Daily Beast forensic analysis reveals. That makes the Missouri Democrat the first identified target of the Kremlin\u2019s 2018 election interference.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McCaskill, who has been highly critical of Russia over the years, is widely considered to be among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats facing re-election this year as Republicans hope to hold their slim majority in the Senate. In 2016, President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by almost 20 points in the senator\u2019s home state of Missouri.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no evidence to suggest that this attempt to lure McCaskill staffers was successful. The precise purpose of the approach was also unclear. Asked about the hack attempt by Russia\u2019s GRU intelligence agency<\/a>, McCaskill told The Daily Beast on Thursday that she wasn\u2019t yet prepared to discuss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to speak of it right now,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll have something on it next week. I\u2019m not going to speak about it right now. I can\u2019t confirm or do anything about it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator later released a statement asserting that the cyberattack was unsuccessful<\/strong>… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The Daily Beast<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow<\/a> covered this story in depth.<\/font><\/p>\n