Sam Nunberg spilled the beans in 2016.
From New York Magazine, Operation Trump, by Gabriel Sherman April 3, 2016
Throughout 2014, the three (Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, and Sam Nunberg fed Trump strategy memos and political intelligence. “I listened to thousands of hours of talk radio, and he was getting reports from me,” Nunberg recalled. What those reports said was that the GOP base was frothing over a handful of issues including immigration, Obamacare, and Common Core.
Talk radio was part of their strategy.
Who was he listening to? Limbaugh? Hannity?
Hannity is Limbaugh’s I-gor. There’s no comparison.
Did they listen to local blowhards in those states that the Russians that Mueller indicted travelled through?
Limbaugh helped Trump in the primaries by attacking the GOP ‘establishment’ big money candidates Bush, Rubio, etc. He regularly made excuses for Trump. That’s why Trump beat the big money. He is still making excuses for Trump, every day. Limbaugh keeps all the other radio blowhards in line. And together they keep the GOP in line.
Who told Trump to pay Nunberg to listen to “1000s” of hours of talk radio? Who would be able to tell city boy Trump to pay for that?
Most of the most effective Russian trolling piggybacked months and years of talk radio bullshit aimed at Clinton. Some of it was repeated here by trolls and even by regulars.
What better way to coordinate with Kremlin trolling without regular coaching and coordination than to just follow the talk radio scripts that have worked for years before social media? If they were going to steal the over-50 Republican teabag base from the GOP establishment they would use talk radio, not social media.
How long has Putin been using US talk radio? What about when Limbaugh used a Russian hack to kickstart ‘Climategate’ in 2009 and save Putin billions in oil revenue? Or to get the US to default on it’s debt in 2011? Or when talk radio blowhards like Hannity used their radio shows to spread the false rumor ( to Isis, for eg) that Obama and Clinton had ordered marines guarding US embassies not to carry live ammo?
Where would a bunch of Russians who didn’t know American politics get their best material from? Why would they just throw a bunch of crap on the social media landscape and hope some of it would stick? What would troll team leaders use to guide their work?
Did the Kremlin figure out years ago how to feed Limbaugh? And by ass-kissing extension, Hannity?
Someone needs to ask Nunberg about studying talk radio in 2014.
Here was a previous diary on this: Hey, MSNBC! Next time you have Sam Nunberg on, ask about when he studied talk radio for Trump.