‘Trump Is a Fascist to the Core’ – Ukraine at War Update for Oct. 17

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that, according to an internal intelligence probe, some members of the country’s Conservative Party opposition could be involved in “foreign interference” in the nation’s elections, which must be held by the end of this month.

Trudeau disclosed, "I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and or candidates in the Conservative Party ... who are engaged, or are at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference.”

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre scoffed at the allegations but was not allowed to see the intelligence report until he received the requisite security clearance, something he declined to do. According to Reuters, polls show that Poliviere’s coalition would “easily beat Trudeau’s Liberals” when those elections are called.

The Ottawa investigating committee has already released evidence that China has tried to meddle in Canadian politics (something Beijing has consistently denied) but, in the absence of detailed public information on the report, Russian interference cannot be ruled out.

During testimony at the Foreign Interference Commission on Wednesday, Trudeau said that “Russian activities related to propaganda, disinformation and misinformation are quite constant in our social media and within Canadian democracy.” He added that “Russian propaganda greatly amplified” anti-vaccine messaging during COVID, “especially in right-wing media.”

Other Topics of Interest

Why Is Russia so Mad? Five Things to Know About Ukraine’s Recent Missile Strikes Against Russia

Moscow is furious Russian sovereign territory has been violated and is rattling sabers. But the Kremlin probably also is lashing out against a more agile opponent.

In September, Trudeau told reporters that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was trying to “destabilize the international rules-based order” and added that this is why, “Canada and others are unequivocal that Ukraine must win this war against Russia,” Reuters reported at the time.

Poilievre has declined to apply for the security clearance needed to read all the intelligence on the grounds that it would prevent him from commenting on the public proceedings.

“My chief of staff has received classified briefings from the government. At no time has the government told me or my chief of staff of any current or former Conservative parliamentarian or candidate knowingly participating in foreign interference,” the opposition leader said.

“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country,” Harris tells Fox News about Trump, citing Republicans formerly on his staff

US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, was interviewed by right-wing network Fox News on Wednesday, making an appeal to conservative and swing voters. Harris’ main message to conservatives during the tense interview was that her opponent, Donald Trump, was “unstable.”

She told Fox that even several Republicans who joined her on stage that day in the swing state of Pennsylvania said: “He is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader, who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances.”

In her speech on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Harris was joined by former Republican members of Congress Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, David Trott of Illinois, and Barbara Comstock of Virginia.

“His national security adviser, two defense secretaries, his former chief of staff, his own vice president, all have warned America: Donald Trump is unfit to serve,” Harris said. “Or listen to General Milley, Donald Trump’s top general [and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]. He has called Trump, and I quote, ‘fascist to the core,’ and said, quote, ‘no one has ever been as dangerous to this country.’”

“When Mark Milley says that Donald Trump is a fascist to the core, that is something Fox News viewers have not heard before,” noted CNN’s media analyst Brian Stelter afterward.

Her interlocutor on Fox on Wednesday evening was the network’s chief political anchor Bret Beier, whose text exchanges with Fox’s leadership in 2020, giving momentum to Trump’s false, concocted theories about election fraud, were brought to light during a voting machine company’s successful $787 million lawsuit against the network’s parent company.

Revealed in discovery in that trial was that when Beier described the Fox network’s accurate prediction that Trump had lost Arizona, and therefore the election, Beier texted to colleagues: “This situation is getting uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. I keep on having to defend this on air. And asked questions about it. And it seems we are holding on for pride.

“The sooner we pull it — even if it gives us major egg — and we put [Arizona] back in [Trump’s] column, the better we are in my opinion,” he wrote in his November 2020 message to network colleagues.

Despite his destroyed journalistic credentials, Beier was picked by the network to interview the Vice President. The exchange could be described as contentious at best, contrary to Fox-friendly fan fears on social media that the interview would be “watered-down” schlock.

Former Harris aide Symone Sanders-Townsend remarked afterward:

“On the tone, I have sat in the room for a number of interviews with VP Harris and they have been tough,” Sanders-Townsend wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I’ve never witnessed what I witnessed tonight though. The interviewer wasn’t themselves — instead, he was rude, misleading, and pulled questions straight out of a proverbial Trump/Vance press release.”

US sends fresh aid package to Kyiv including HIMARS rounds, and NASAMS, Stinger, and Javelin missiles

The US Department of Defense (DoD) unveiled the contents of a new $425 million military aid package to Kyiv on Wednesday. According to the DoD’s press release, the package, which was allocated as part of US President Joe Biden’s draw-down authority, will include:

• Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
• RIM-7 missiles and support for air defense
• Stinger anti-aircraft missiles
• Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
• Air-to-ground munitions
• 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition
• Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missiles
• FGM-148 Javelin missile and AT-4 84mm man-portable anti-armor systems
• High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs);
• Small arms and ammunition

“The United States will continue to work together with some 50 Allies and partners through the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and its associated capability coalitions to meet Ukraine’s urgently needed battlefield requirements and defend against Russian aggression,” the DoD press release stated.