TV
Kate Plummer
Mar 18, 2022
Independent
An American journalist has asked people to consider Donald Trump's impact when they question why Russians believe Vladimir Putin's propaganda.
Julia Ioffre, a Russian-born American journalist spoke about the issue of misinformation on MNSBC and said it is not "that surprising" that Russians have fallen for Putin's nonsense, considering people believed misinformation peddled by the former US president.
She said: "Every time I'm asked by Americans 'do Russians really believe this stuff? How can believe this stuff?' as if we don't have the same thing happening here. We have 40 per cent of the American population that was convinced just in one year that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election.
"Russians have been subjected to this kind of disinformation for far far longer, so it shouldn't be all that surprising. Americans fall for it too - pretty easily."
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Ioffre was referring both to Putin's assertions that the country is defending itself from Ukrainian and Nato aggression and Trump's claims in 2020 that the presidential election that took place in late 2019 was stolen from him. Both claims don't stand up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny.
When the MNSBC clip was shared on social media, it racked up over one million views and people praised her for hitting the nail right on the head.
Ioffe: Every time I\u2019m asked by Americans do Russians really believe this stuff\u2026 as if we don\u2019t have the same thing happening here. You have 40% of the American population that was convinced in just one year that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election\u2026pic.twitter.com/xZfXd0YMPo— Acyn (@Acyn) 1647488325
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