by tyler | Aug 26, 2023 | CNN, politics
Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.
US intelligence agencies believe that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is attempting to influence public policy and public opinion in the West by directing Russian civilians to build relationships with influential US and Western individuals and then disseminate narratives that support Kremlin objectives, obscuring the FSB’s role through layers of ostensibly independent actors.
“These influence operations are designed to be deliberately small scale, the overall goal being US [and] Western persons presenting these ideas, seemingly organic,” a US official authorized to discuss the material told CNN. “The co-optee influence operations are built primarily on personal relationships … they build trust with them and then they can leverage that to covertly push the FSB’s agenda.”
The campaigns have sometimes been effective at planting Russian narratives in the Western press, according to the intelligence. Maxim Grigoriev, who heads a Russian NGO, made multiple speeches to the UN presenting a false study that claimed the humanitarian group the White Helmets – which operates in Syria – was running a black market for human organs and had faked chemical attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with whom Russia is allied. Those claims eventually found their way into a television report on the far-right OANN in the United States, according to open-source materials provided by the official.
CNN has reached out to Grigoriev and OANN.
But the official stressed that the Western voices that eventually became mouthpieces for Russian propaganda were almost certainly unaware of the role they were playing.
“At the end of the day, this unwitting target is disseminating Russian influence operation, Russian propaganda to their target public,” the US official said. “Ultimately, a lot of these are unwitting people — they remain unaware who is essentially seeding these narratives.”
The intelligence provides several examples of Russian civilian “co-optees” doing the bidding of the FSB.
One man, Andrey Stepanenko, founded a media project in 2014 that sponsored journalists from the US and the West to visit eastern Ukraine and learn “the alleged truth” about what was happening in the region. In fact, the FSB directed his efforts and “almost certainly financed the project,” according to the declassified intelligence.
CNN was not able to locate Stepanenko to ask for comment.
The US official also cited Natalia Burlinova, the founder of a Russian NGO who routinely coordinated FSB-funded public diplomacy efforts aimed at influencing Western views. In 2018, she visited, had meetings and hosted events at multiple US think tanks and universities in New York, Boston and Washington – work that was funded by the FSB, according to the intelligence. Her conduct was already public: She was indicted earlier this year on charges of conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia inside the United States, although she remains at liberty in Russia.
Burlinova in an email to CNN denied that her US trips in 2018 were financed by the FSB.
“All travel expenses were financed by a grant that we previously received from the Presidential Grants Fund, the main grant operator of Russia,” she said. “The FSB of Russia did not give me any money for the trip.”
The official declined to offer specifics to back up the intelligence community’s assertions that the FSB is funding this kind of operation but noted that once officials were able establish FSB backing, it is easy to trace the narratives they are pushing in open-source materials.
“Once you’re aware of who these people are and their association with the FSB, by nature of what they’re doing, they have very, very public personas,” the official said. “And so I would just say it’s not really difficult to kind of follow the strings.”
The US official declined to say whether Russia has used these same tactics to try to influence US elections.
The FSB does use similar tactics to influence political opinion within Russia, according to the intelligence. In one instance, a Russian media figure named Anton Tsvetkov organized protests outside of embassies in Moscow — including the US Embassy — at the FSB’s behest. The protests pushed Russia’s narrative of the war in Ukraine, “promoting the ‘Ukrainian Nazi’ narrative and blaming the U.S. and its allies for the deaths of children in the Donbass,” while hiding the Russian government’s role, according to the declassified intelligence.
“The purpose of those protests really was … designed to sell it to the Russian people,” the US official said.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
by tyler | Aug 26, 2023 | CNN, politics
For months, Evangelina Hernandez watched helplessly as her autistic twin sons regressed – their screaming, biting and scratching worsening. The Wichita, Kansas, resident couldn’t afford the $3,000 monthly tab for their 10 prescriptions or their doctor visits without Medicaid.
The toddlers, along with three of their sisters, lost their health insurance in May, swept up in the state’s eligibility review of all its Medicaid enrollees. Hernandez said she only received the renewal packet a day before it was due and mailed it back right away. She also called KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program, and filled out another application over the phone, certain that the kids remained eligible.
Yet, every time she inquired about the children’s coverage, she was told the renewal was still being processed. And though her partner works for an airplane manufacturer, the family can’t afford the health insurance plan offered by his employer.
“My kids are suffering. You can see it,” said Hernandez, who along with her infant daughter, remained on Medicaid thanks to coverage provisions for low-income, postpartum mothers and babies. “The medication they’re on, I can’t afford it.”
Just over a week ago, Hernandez got the call she had been waiting for: The kids’ coverage was reinstated. However, the pharmacy told her it could not immediately fill her sons’ prescriptions because it had to get their new enrollee information – and even then, she could only pick up the medication for one son because there were errors in her other son’s file.
The delays have consequences. Once they start taking the medications again, it will take about a month before their behavior starts to improve, she said.
All across the US, hundreds of thousands of children are being kicked off of Medicaid, even though experts say the vast majority continue to qualify. They are among the more than 87 million people in Medicaid and several million more in the Children’s Health Insurance Program who are having their eligibility checked and are facing possible termination of coverage for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
States regained the ability to start winnowing their Medicaid rolls of residents whom they deem no longer qualify on April 1, when a pandemic relief program expired. Since then, at least 5.4 million people have lost their benefits, according to KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Not every state breaks down their terminations by age. But in the 15 states that do, at least 1.1 million youngsters have been dropped, according to KFF. That includes Texas, where nearly half a million non-disabled children lost coverage between April and the end of July, accounting for 81% of the total disenrolled. In Kansas, Idaho and Missouri, kids make up at least half of those losing benefits.
As many as 6.7 million children are at risk of having their benefits terminated during the so-called unwinding process, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Roughly three-quarters of them are expected to remain eligible for Medicaid but will likely lose coverage because of administrative issues, such as their parents not submitting the necessary paperwork or errors made by state Medicaid agencies.
This could lead to a doubling of the uninsured rate among children, said Joan Alker, the center’s executive director, noting that Medicaid covers about half of kids in the US.
“Children have an incredible amount at stake here,” she said. “We continue to be extremely worried as we see what’s happening around the country.”
Overall, nearly three-quarters of adults and children who have lost coverage were dropped for so-called procedural reasons, according to KFF. This typically happens when enrollees do not complete the renewal form, often because it may have been sent to an old address, it was difficult to understand or it wasn’t returned by the deadline.
Some people, however, may not return their forms because they know they earn too much to qualify or they obtained coverage elsewhere, such as from an employer.
The high rate of procedural terminations worries federal officials and advocates because at least some of these folks likely remain eligible for Medicaid but may become uninsured.
In Idaho, there were 211,000 youngsters in the state’s Medicaid and CHIP programs in February – accounting for about half of the state’s total enrollees.
But more than 55,000 children had their insurance terminated in the first four months of the unwinding.
“An obscene number of kids are losing their Medicaid,” said Hillarie Hagen, a health policy associate at Idaho Voices for Children.
Among those processed were 33,000 children in families whom the state believes are no longer eligible. Nearly 23,000 of them were dropped for procedural reasons, Hagen said.
Also of great concern is that enrollment in Idaho’s CHIP program has fallen by 16,000 kids during the same period. Hagen expected the number to rise since CHIP has a higher income threshold than Medicaid so some children should have shifted over automatically.
One main reason why so many children – and adults – are losing coverage is because Idaho is focusing initially on households that it knows earn too much or who haven’t responded to the state in the last few years, said Shane Leach, welfare administrator for the state’s Department of Health and Welfare. Idaho continued to check enrollees’ eligibility during the pandemic, though it did not drop those who no longer qualified until now.
The department issues two rounds of notices, sends text messages and posts information in an online portal to let families know they need to return their renewal forms. Even if they miss the deadline, they can regain their coverage, he said.
“If anybody feels that they’re eligible, then reach out and reapply,” Leach said.
Many parents may not realize that even though they don’t qualify for Medicaid anymore, their children may still be eligible because the household income limit for kids to remain covered is higher, said Jennifer Tolbert, an associate director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. This is especially true in the 10 states – including Kansas, Florida and Texas – that have not approved the expansion of Medicaid benefits to low-income adults.
Advocates are urging parents to complete and submit the renewal documents even if they think they earn too much to qualify themselves.
In some other cases, children are possibly being dropped because their state is applying the wrong income threshold to them.
In Florida, for instance, parents in a family of four must earn less than $8,520 annually to qualify, but children ages 1 to 5 are eligible if their household income is no more than $43,500, and those ages 6 to 18 can keep their coverage if their family earns less than $41,400, said Lynn Hearn, a staff attorney with the Florida Health Justice Project, an advocacy group.
Children’s enrollment in Medicaid dropped by roughly 154,000 kids, or 5.7%, between May and July, according to a Georgetown analysis of state data. The state does not break down terminations by age.
Hearn and her colleagues have had success in restoring some children’s coverage by appealing to the state and pointing out that the family’s income is less than the eligibility threshold for kids.
Another concern is that youngsters are not being automatically referred to the state’s CHIP program, Florida KidCare, Hearn said.
“I have yet to see a case where the referral happened timely and accurately,” she said.
When asked about the advocates’ concerns, Florida’s Department of Children and Families referred CNN to a fact sheet listing the state’s outreach efforts and enrollee support, including that it has more than 2,700 employees processing cases and assisting participants.
Once a family loses coverage, regaining it can be frustrating and time-consuming. Tanya Harris spent weeks calling Florida’s Department of Children and Families, waiting on hold for hours at a time, to restore her kids’ insurance.
The Jacksonville resident only learned in late June that they would be cut off after she called the insurer that contracts with Florida to provide her family’s Medicaid benefits. She needed to discuss her 17-year-old daughter’s upcoming spinal surgery. Harris quickly filled out the renewal paperwork on the state’s online portal but was stuck in processing limbo for well over a month.
Harris, who is on long-term disability from her employer as she battles several health conditions, spoke to multiple supervisors and uploaded verifications of her and her husband’s income and address over and over again.
Though the family regained Medicaid coverage in early August, their headaches aren’t over. Some doctors won’t see the kids until they receive their new insurance information, which Harris hopes will be settled next week. And she’s still not able to get some of their medications.
Meanwhile, her 6-year-old son, who has a severe peanut allergy, cannot sit with his classmates at lunch at his new school until his doctor sends in a medicine authorization form for his EpiPen.
“It was just devastating,” Harris said of the coverage loss. “The kids didn’t get the care that they need.”
Some advocates are trying to take advantage of the start of the school year to alert parents to the importance of submitting their renewal documents.
In Kansas, where nearly 46,000 youngsters have been disenrolled so far, multiple groups are setting up tables at back-to-school events, working with school nurses and doing outreach through early childhood organizations, said Heather Braum, a health policy adviser at Kansas Action for Children.
KanCare reaches out to enrollees at least four times before their renewal is due to encourage them to return the needed paperwork, said Matt Lara, communications director for the state’s Department of Health and Environment. The agency also paused procedural terminations in May and June to give folks more time to send in their packets, as well as hired extra staff to work in the call center and help process renewals.
However, more should be done to improve the system and make sure eligible children maintain their coverage, Braum said.
“Kids’ medical care in so many situations can be very time sensitive – where they’re getting therapies and treatments and prescriptions,” she said. “If it gets delayed, it can have a permanent impact on their lives. Outcomes can be very different. And that’s inexcusable to me.”
by tyler | Aug 26, 2023 | CNN, politics
Asked Wednesday night at the first Republican presidential debate if he would support sending US Special Forces into Mexico to confront drug cartels operating in the country, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answered clearly: “Yes, and I will do it on day one.”
“The president of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country and to protect the people. So when they’re coming across, yes we’re going to use lethal force, yes we reserve the right to operate,” he said.
He reemphasized his plan in a tweet after the debate: “Yes, I would send U.S. Special Forces to take out the Mexican drug cartels.”
DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin told CNN, “Ron DeSantis will declare a national emergency on day one, mobilize all military resources, declare the cartels to be narco-terrorists, and change the rules of engagement on the border. The full force of the federal government will be utilized to ensure that illegal drug flow is stopped, and he will bring to bear every tool he has to this end.”
DeSantis is not the only Republican to call for military action against drug cartels. But while experts said frustration over the cartels in Mexico and their impact on Americans is valid, they warned that taking military action on the soil of the US’ southern neighbor could trigger a diplomatic crisis.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Brookings Institution’s Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, explained that designating the cartels as a foreign terrorist organization would allow “for lethal action,” though that “doesn’t eliminate the diplomatic controversy and outrage in Mexico that any Mexican government would have.”
Such a designation could have “major implications for trade,” Felbab-Brown said.
“We can say what we want on our side – from the perspective of the Mexican government and Mexican military, that would be very much seen as a massive violation of sovereignty,” she said.
Earl Anthony Wayne, a career diplomat who was the US ambassador to Mexico from 2011 to 2015, echoed that sentiment, saying US military action in Mexico has been “an extremely sensitive issue” for years.
“Doing this in the way that he sounded like he was going to do it would create a massive crisis with Mexico,” Wayne said of DeSantis’ comments. “Whoever’s in charge” of Mexico, even if it were someone with a good relationship with the US, “would be forced to take drastic action and close the borders or do other things.”
As for the authority to deploy US forces in that way, Wayne said it would fall “under the same rubric of launching a military operation in any other country around the world.” And while presidents don’t always get approval from Congress before taking military action, they do have to contend with Congress afterward.
“There would have to be a justification,” he said. “And Congress would raise questions – why didn’t you seek authority for this, what’s the emergency that set this off? I mean, if you wanted to do it without telling anybody and without working anything out with the government of Mexico, it would create a lot of uproar in the United States, as well as with Mexico.”
Ezra Cohen, a fellow with the Hudson Institute who was an acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict in the Trump administration, said a president would “almost certainly” need to notify Congress after taking such an action.
“Congress could pass a law prohibiting funding for such operations, but it would be hard for Congress to prevent this sort of activity,” he said.
Cohen added, however, that the US is “out of options” in how to deal with the cartels because the Mexican government has proven to be “too corrupt and not strong enough to deal with this.”
Both Wayne and Felbab-Brown agreed that the situation is dire but said the best path forward would be to find a way to work with the Mexican government. They acknowledged, however, that it has become increasingly difficult to do so.
Felbab-Brown said that right now, “there is no cooperation” with the government, but there “are still officers, law enforcement officials, government officials who understand the narcos are taking over Mexico.” Taking military action, she said, would narrow options for future cooperation “tremendously.”
“It’s not just that they are not cooperating with us; they are letting Mexico be eaten alive by the cartels,” Felbab-Brown said. “But, you know, lethal military action, certainly involving US soldiers … would be enormously challenging in terms of the optics and the bilateral relationship, and it would just sour even people who want to cooperate with the US. It would make it very difficult for them.”
And military action, Wayne said, is not a serious idea to deal with what has become a “massive problem.”
“These groups have grown and become powerful; they’re all mixed with the civilian population,” he said. “Give me a serious solution here. Don’t just make us all feel happy because you say you’re going to send the Special Forces in. … The point is to cut the flows off, it’s not just to kill a couple of cartel members in a small place where they put fentanyl together in a warehouse.”
by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
The Biden administration has launched a new federal student loan repayment plan that could lower millions of borrowers’ monthly bills and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans.
If borrowers apply this summer for the repayment plan known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), the changes to their bills are expected to take effect before payments resume in October after the yearslong pandemic pause ends.
Once the repayment plan is fully phased in next year, some people will see their monthly bills cut in half and remaining debt canceled after making at least 10 years of payments.
If you’re applying for the SAVE plan, we want to hear from you and may follow up for a CNN story.
by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
A lawyer for Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office who has been charged with concealing $225,000 he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence employee, said he expects the case against his client in Washington, DC, to be resolved without going to trial.
The 22-year veteran of the FBI, who retired in 2018, was charged in January in two separate indictments in New York and DC in the alleged scheme and for allegedly working with a sanctioned Russian oligarch after he retired.
During a status conference Friday in the DC case, McGonigal’s attorney, Seth DuCharme, noted that defendants have two choices – to plead guilty or go to trial – and said there was a “decent chance the case is going to be resolved” without having to go to trial and that they should know for certain just after Labor Day.
McGonigal has pleaded not guilty to both indictments.
DuCharme’s comments suggest that government prosecutors and McGonigal’s attorneys may be working through a plea agreement in the case, though DuCharme noted he was interested in seeing the rest of the prosecutor’s discovery in the case, which includes national defense documents that still require some redactions.
It’s unclear what a plea agreement between prosecutors and McGonigal would look like and what charges, ultimately, he might plead guilty to.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly set another hearing for September 13.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good update for you the next time we see you,” DuCharme told Kollar-Kotelly.
In the case charged in New York, a status report on that matter is due on Tuesday.
by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
The Montgomery Locks and Dam near Pittsburgh is in the midst of a $857 million upgrade to ensure water levels in the Upper Ohio River are high enough for large cargo ships to pass through.
On a grassy roadside nearby, a white sign announces who’s behind the work: “Project funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
For Biden, taking credit for an improving economy — including the jobs and growth made possible by the trillion-dollar public works law — has become a political imperative, one that will help determine whether he is reelected to a second term next year. Even as Democrats relish a recent hot streak of positive economic data, they acknowledge it won’t benefit Biden politically unless voters begin to associate him with the improvements.
The White House office responsible for the infrastructure signage says there will be hundreds of thousands of signs claiming credit for projects made possible by the 2021 law, many of which are just now getting started. The same sign is posted near a road improvement project in Wisconsin and a border crossing in Arizona. Even where the work isn’t obvious, there are signs. At a large empty field in Montana, a sign announces a Superfund site is being cleaned up thanks to the law.
It’s all now collected under the banner of “Bidenomics,” the blanket term adopted by the White House to take ownership of an improving economy ahead of the 2024 election.
Despite the improvement, polls continue to show wide disapproval of how Biden has handled the economy, to the frustration of the White House and its Democratic allies. Even as inflation slows, wages rise, hiring continues apace and recession fears ease, many Americans are still pessimistic about the economy and blame the president.
“It’s understandable that Americans’ perception of the economy operates with somewhat of a lag to real economic data,” said Brian Deese, who until February served as director of Biden’s National Economic Council. “The recent uptick in consumer sentiment is promising and heartening. If we continue to see progress in that direction, I would expect it would start to flow through more clearly into approval numbers as well.”
Progress in changing Americans’ sour economic perceptions has so far been slow. About half of Americans think the economy is still in a downturn and getting worse, according to a CNN poll released Thursday. Only 37% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy – a figure that has held roughly steady since last fall.
Three-quarters of Americans describe economic conditions in the country as poor, according to the CNN poll – despite better than expected economic growth, and experts from the Federal Reserve to Goldman Sachs to Bank of America now saying a recession is no longer likely in the next year.
Voters have more concerns, though, than just their bank accounts. Biden’s age continues to worry voters, according to polls. Enthusiasm for a second Biden term remains low among Democrats. And the national mood has been dampened by years of political and economic turmoil.
“Post Covid, people are in a bad mood. They’re not very convinced and optimistic about anything because there’s a level of PTSD, certain level of depression,” a Democratic strategist said. “It’s not because of Joe Biden. It’s just because of the times.”
On Friday, government data showed the economy added 187,000 jobs in July, slightly lower than expected but still a sign of robust hiring. The report showed the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.5%, near a historic low.
The jobs report is the latest in a string of positive economic data. Last week, government figures showed the economy grew at a 2.4% rate in the April-through-June period, a faster pace than in the first three months of the year and well above economists’ expectations.
Consumer sentiment tracked by the University of Michigan rose 13% in July, the second straight month of improvement. And wages are now rising faster than prices.
White House aides acknowledge it will take time both for Americans to start feeling the effects of a stronger economy and to associate Biden with those improvements. But they see recent data as encouraging tailwinds.
“We’re finally getting the kind of clouds-clearing that we need for people to actually hear that message and see what we’re doing,” a senior administration official said. “I think communication in this day and age is always tough, it’s a fractured media environment. And that makes it even more necessary for us to keep repeating it.”
Speaking in Maine last week, Biden suggested Republicans were looking elsewhere for attack lines — including investigations of his family — now that economic conditions were improving.
“Republicans may have to find something else to criticize me for now that inflation is coming down. Maybe they’ll decide to impeach me because it’s coming down,” he said at a textile factory in Auburn, the signs behind him all labeled “Bidenomics: Made in America.”
What might serve as a laugh line for Democrats is rooted in some reality: Even significant economic improvements may not shift political winds in an increasingly partisan climate. CNN’s July polling found 70% of Democrats approved of Biden’s handling of the economy, compared to just 5% of Republicans. And while increased optimism was apparent among respondents who identified as Democrats, an overwhelming majority of Republicans were still pessimistic.
“There is a tough set of questions around, ‘Are there structural factors at play that will make it more challenging for POTUS to convince voters that the gains are under his stewardship?’” a former senior administration official said.
Biden’s advisers believe the attempt to brand the president’s economic accomplishments has been working — slowly, they acknowledge — to shift perceptions of his record, citing the uptick in consumer sentiment. Yet Biden’s economic approval remains anemic, meaning the effort that began earlier this summer with podium speeches at shipyards, factories and plants around the country will continue into the fall.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and several other top administration officials launched another travel blitz this week – that will include stops by the president next week in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah – highlighting key legislative accomplishments and touting positive economic data across the country.
So far, the administration has leaned on its own Cabinet to deliver its message. But Biden should take a page from the playbook of President Barack Obama, another former official said, and leverage private-sector executives to talk up the economy.
“The Biden surrogate playbook doesn’t exist,” the former official said, suggesting leaders from manufacturing, clean energy and semiconductor industries could be effective cheerleaders for Biden’s policies and the investments they’ve spurred.
Obama faced similarly negative economic perceptions at a similar point in his first term, but the economy was in much worse shape. Only 26% of Americans approved of his handling of the economy in August 2011, a month in which unemployment stood at 9.1% and the US economy created zero jobs.
He went on to handily win reelection the following year.
“Obama had to change people’s minds about where he started from and the bad hand that he was dealt and what he did to improve the economy, and Biden has that story on steroids,” the Democratic strategist said. “He has a story about turning the economy around no president has.”
White House aides and advisers acknowledge there’s still time for that story to change, for momentum to slow, or for new risks to appear.
“The bottom line is, we don’t have a history of looking at economic cycles that follow global pandemics, that follow major shocks to our supply chains and our energy markets because of geopolitical forces,” another current senior administration official said. “There’s a lot that’s unusual about this economic cycle.”
With 15 months until Election Day, the Biden administration remains most focused on sustaining the momentum – and the message.
“I think they’re pretty comfortable playing the long-ish game on this,” the first former senior administration official said. “They are asking themselves the question, ‘Where are we going to be a year from now?’”
