Say goodbye to institutions of democracy. Been swell. SMH https://t.co/vn2rgDPp0S
— Jumbo Elliott (@JumboElliott76) November 14, 2024
In a larger- albeit more speculative sense- democracy is endangered because it appears that the incoming President of the USA will be dancing to someone else's tune.
Snopes set out to examine the claim circulating on social media that "Russian state TV aired nude photos of Melania Trump shortly after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the Nov. 5 presidential election." It explained
An article published on Nov. 8, 2024, by Vox News Albania read: "Russia's largest television 'denigrates' the First Lady and publishes 'embarrassing' photos of Melania just 1 day after Trump's victory."
In short, because Russian state TV did indeed air revealing photos of Melania Trump taken during her modeling career shortly after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, we have rated this claim as true.
An article published on Nov. 8, 2024, by Vox News Albania
read: "Russia's largest television 'denigrates' the First Lady and
publishes 'embarrassing' photos of Melania just 1 day after Trump's
victory."
In short, because Russian state TV did indeed air revealing photos of Melania Trump taken during her modeling career shortly after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, we have rated this claim as true.
The video containing clips from Russian state TV was shared on Nov. 11, 2024, on the YouTube channel of Russian News Monitor, a project of Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis that tracks Russian state media propaganda trends.
Davis also shared it on her X account on Nov. 8, 2024,
writing "Meanwhile in Russia: this is how the most watched state TV
channel in the country welcomed Melania Trump's upcoming return to the White
House. Olga Skabeeva is trying not to laugh. This was probably her idea."
The segments featured in the video aired on Nov. 7, 2024, during "60 минут" ("60 Minutes"), a Russian political talk show on the Russia 1 channel, hosted by Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov.
The program was available on Smotrim.ru website, an official online platform of Russian state television.
The video shared on social media was compiled from separate excerpts featuring Melania Trump, taken from a program aired in Russia at 6:30 p.m. at timestamps: 41:35-42:18, 42:33-42:48, 43:34-43:42 and 45:28-45:33. (These clips also appeared in the "60 Minutes" program aired at 11.30 a.m. at time stamps: 1:05:30-1:05:45, 1:06:32-1:06:38 and 1:08:06-1:08:12).
The photos of Melania Trump used in the broadcast were not new or leaked images but widely known and previously published photos from her modeling career....
The Russian TV segment also referenced a video in which Melania Trump asked: "What does my body, my choice mean?"
Melania Trump did not deny that the photos were authentic, instead defending them because "we should honor our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using att as a powerful means of self-expression."
This episode is a fitting eptaph to the death, occurring nine years ago, of the Republican Party as the "pro-family" party. Notably, the President-elect has said nothing. He has said nothing because he knows who has him by the short hairs.
Most likely, this is nothing new. In Helsinki in August of 2018
At a news conference after the summit, President Trump was
asked if he believed his own intelligence agencies or the Russian president
when it came to the allegations of meddling in the elections.
"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he replied.
US intelligence agencies concluded in 2016 that Russia was behind an effort to tip the scale of the US election against Hillary Clinton, with a state-authorised campaign of cyber attacks and fake news stories planted on social media.
To then-Arizona Senator John McCain, it was "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." McCain had a suspicion, as have many others, including invertebrate Kevin McCarthy when in June, 2016 (when he still had a semblance of a spine) he admitted "there's two people I think Putin pays: (US Represenative Dana) Rohrabacher and Trump."
The sarcasm practically writes itself. Due to Donald Trump's forgiving nature wherein he lets bygones be bygones, and shrugs off insults, he has turned a blind eye to the effort of Russian state TV to taunt him.
Returning to reality: Donald Trump does not believe "revenge is a dish best served cold." Everything is an insult to him and he will strike back with a ferocity greater than what is directed to him. He will viciously denigrate the individual any wy he can, as long as he can get away with it.
And yet, he is quiet about this major slap in the face. Sometimes one has to take abuse directed at him. That's especially true when the puppet is due to assume the American presidency and the Russian president is the puppet master.
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