In an article that did not appear in its robust opinion section, NBC News claimed they do not see how fake emails that claim to have been sent by the Proud Boys, threatening to kill Democrats if they do not vote for President Donald Trump, hurt the president’s campaign “because they were urging Democrats to switch to the Republican Party.”
According to NBC News reporter Kevin Collier, it is not clear how an email sent by Iran, spoofed to appear to be sent by the Proud Boys, that appear to threaten physical harm against Democrats if they do not vote for President Trump, could hurt the Republican incumbent.
“But the emails were actually ‘spoofed’ and had been designed ‘to incite social unrest and damage President Trump,’ said John Ratcliffe,” wrote Collier for NBC News. “Ratcliffe did not explain how the emails were damaging to Trump, because they were urging Democrats to switch to the Republican Party.”
The actual email, which was allegedly sent by Iran using publicly available voter information, threatens that the sender is “in possession of all your information (email, address, telephone… everything. You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure.
The Iranian email continues, “You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply.”
Yalls president supports these people?? pic.twitter.com/wS9t9J5Xff
— nickel (@Nicoleeem73) October 20, 2020
To restate the official hard news section of NBC News, the Director of National Intelligence should have spelled out, very clearly, why a message like this could hurt President Trump’s reelection campaign.
National File contacted Collier to see if he could elaborate on NBC News’ meaning behind this statement, and whether this signifies NBC News disagrees with the intelligence assessment from the DNI that indicates this email came from a foreign state and did not receive an immediate response.
