Former Russia Today anchor: Russian media are attempting to ‘undermine faith in our institutions’

Former Russia Today anchor Liz Wahl said Sunday that Russian media intentionally attempt to undermine democracy through disinformation during a panel discussion on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

“I mean, that is the main goal of Russian disinformation, whether it be through their television channels, whether it be through other measures like hacking, like their legions of paid trolls,” Wahl said. “That is the ultimate goal is to undermine democracy, to undermine faith in our institutions, like the media.”

She argued that some of Trump’s talking points “matched” Russian propaganda “to undermine our system.”

Later in the discussion, Wahl said Russian disinformation “has been happening for years now.”

“But people didn’t really take it seriously,” she said. “I mean, the goal of Russian media is to undermine faith in our institutions and now they’ve succeeded in hacking our elections.”

She said that many Americans “didn’t get the memo” and don’t believe that Russia attempted to influence the election.

“This is a huge national security issue and for some reason this message did not come across to the American people during the campaign when this should have been the biggest election story.”

Wahl said Russia has waged similar disinformation campaigns to influence elections in European countries.

In 2014, Wahl resigned from her position at the state-owned TV network Russia Today on air, telling her viewers that she is “proud to be an American” and could no longer work for a network “that whitewashes the actions of Putin.”

. @LizWahl: "The goal of Russian media is to undermine faith in our institutions and now they've succeeded in hacking our election." #Trump pic.twitter.com/lKYmmMCPgq

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) December 12, 2016