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Russian hackers are like Mexican singers at Clinton rally, says GOP lawmaker

Commentary: Rep. Mike Conaway believes that singing and hacking are both attempts at inserting foreign influence.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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Vicente Fernandez recorded a song for Hillary Clinton. Foreign influence?

John Medina, WireImage

There seems general agreement that nefarious Russian operatives tried to influence the US election.

Not everyone, though, seems sure that this was done to boost Donald Trump's chances or that it affected the result. The president-elect, for one.

Another act of foreign influence, however, has been less examined: the use of Mexican entertainers by Democrats.

You might have missed this melodious infiltration. Rep. Mike Conaway from Texas did not. As the Dallas Morning News reports, Conaway believes Democrats used Mexican opera-tives and other so-called performers to sway the people of Nevada to vote for Hillary Clinton.

"Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth," he told the Morning News.

Did these singers offer ditties about Trump's tax returns or his personal proclivities? It seems not.

However, Conaway explained: "Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don't hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that."

You most certainly don't.

I will pause for amateur philosophers to wonder how Russians sneaking around the web can be equated with Mexicans dancing around a stage in full view of thousands.

I will tell you that Conaway, a Republican, told the Morning News each constitutes "foreign influence." Rep. Conway didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The nation's first Latina senator, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, took to Twitter on Thursday to offer Conaway this tune: "This is a pathetic and offensive attempt to try to diminish the consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to boost Donald Trump."

I wonder, though, what will happen to these singing Mexican influencers should the legendary wall be built between the US and Mexico. Will they have to hack their songs into America?

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