John Sununu: Russia is playing Democrats and the media 'like a fiddle'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News contributor John Sununu argued Monday that the Democrats and mainstream media are being "played like a fiddle," questioning their claims that Russia wants President Trump to be reelected.
“They’re playing the media and the Democrats like a fiddle. There’s no way the Russians want Donald Trump's reelection,” President George H.W. Bush's former chief of staff told “America’s Newsroom.”
Sununu explained that the Russians instead are focused on their three main international objectives: controlling Europe’s “energy market, achieving parity with the U.S. militarily, and maintaining their control in Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sununu said that Trump has hindered Russian President Vladimir Putin's progress toward those objectives.
“But the Russians are smart," he said, believing they are using Democrats' "stupidity" in order to create even more "chaos" in the U.S. political system.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Contrary to numerous media reports, there is no evidence to suggest that Russia is making a specific "play" to boost Trump's reelection bid, a U.S. intelligence official told Fox News on Sunday.
In addition, top U.S. election official Shelby Pierson, who briefed Congress on Russian election interference efforts, may have overstated intelligence regarding the issue when speaking to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this month, the source added.
U.S. intelligence officials have publicly testified only that the Russians have been using "information warfare" ahead of the election. Fox News is told Democrats pressed Pierson on whether Russia was trying to help Trump, and accurate context or perspective to her responses failed to emerge.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The whiplash came as fears of Russian intervention have gripped the 2020 presidential race following an unverified report by The New York Times and CNN that Russia wanted to help Trump, which CNN has since walked back.
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Sununu also mentioned that the Russians are using Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as a “tool to undermine the American system.” Sununu said the Russians are taking advantage of an American education system that is “making a generation of Americans look more favorably to socialism.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“What [Russia is] even more interested in is cultural warfare,” Sununu said.
“They’re not foolish, they understand what they’re doing and they’re just using the stupidity of the left to undermine America."
Fox News' Gregg Re and John Roberts contributed to this report.