The media pushed the claim that Donald Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin and colluded to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
Posted by The Kuhner Report, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support3 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 55%
The Kuhner ReportOct 7, 2026
The sources support the narrower claim that major media outlets heavily promoted the Trump-Russia collusion narrative in 2016-2019, though the promotion account comes mostly from opinion pieces and unrated outlets. The sources also show the collusion allegation itself was not substantiated, but the claim as extracted is about media promotion, not whether collusion occurred.
What was said
… go on X, At the kuner report that's my handle on X, At the kuner report and please read my tweet and send it around to as many people as possible, because we have to stop them. This can no longer go on. They cannot be allowed to get away with this anymore. They pushed the Russia collusion hoax, that Trump was a puppet of a foreign power, i.e., Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, and that together they colluded to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. And the media pushed this, knowing it was a bald faced, disgusting lie, and it tore this country apart. They then pushed the lie about COVID, that it was essentially an apocalyptic plague with a death rate of 3.4%, and they sent the entire country into …
The Kuhner Report · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. A CJR special report says the Clinton campaign and reporters promoted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory of a secret Trump-Russia alliance, and that the media played a role in it.[4]
Supports. An opinion piece in The Hill describes years of wall-to-wall media coverage of disproven allegations, and a Spiked piece describes the media as drumming up the collusion narrative.[3][5]
Supports. A FEE piece says outlets promoted the 'Russia hacked the election' narrative while lacking evidence for it, and a Haaretz piece says the Rand study found the collusion theme was used to target voters.[6][7]
Context. The New Yorker summary says Attorney General Barr reported that Mueller cleared Trump's campaign of conspiracy with Moscow, while also noting that some Times reporting hinted at contacts; the collusion allegation was not substantiated.[8]
Context. The AP and PolitiFact coverage from 2018 concerns the Russian indictments and Trump's denials of Russian meddling, not the media's promotion of collusion claims.[1][2]
Sources
8 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 1, 5 not rated
- 1Donald Trump falsely says he never denied Russian meddlingpolitifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Russians charged with meddling in 2016 presidential raceapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3The Justice Department takes action on the real Russian collusion ...thehill.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 4The press versus the president, part onecjr.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5The Democrats' 'acceptable' election denial - Spikedspiked-online.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6US-Russia Tensions Are Escalating Because of Collusion Feverfee.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7Putin's disinformation campaign claims stunning victory with Capitol Hill ‘coup'haaretz.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 8The Media and the Mueller Report's March Surprisenewyorker.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Donald Trump benefited from Russia's interference and influence campaign in 2016.True
- A group within the government, including Barack Obama, James Comey, and John Brennan, set up the Russian collusion hoax.Mixed
- Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that the 2020 U.S. election was rigged because of mail-in voting.Can’t tell
- The Russian government used tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fake accounts to create outrage during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.True
- Robert Mueller's investigation into collusion with Russia was taken over by the Justice Department and whitewashed.Mixed