Moscow, Nov 25 US Congressman Mike Conaway has slammed the RT broadcaster as a “propaganda machine” during public hearings into US President Donald Trump’s impeachment, while interrogating Fiona Hill, the president’s former adviser on Russia.
On November 21, Conaway asked Hill, who used to serve as Trump’s adviser on Russia and Europe in the National Security Council from April 2017 to August 2019, whether she agreed that the RT was “a Putin’s propaganda machine here in the United States,” according to the transcript of her testimony, released by Rev.com.
Hill said that she agreed with the statement, and Conaway, who used to lead the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee’s probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential vote, accused the RT of being used “to affect public policy” on the US. Conaway referred to the RT’s materials that he sees as targeted against shale oil production through fracking. “Is that appropriate use? Or is that should be, should Americans be paying attention to that?” Conaway asked.
Hill, in turn, noted that “Americans should be paying attention that RT and other outlets are used to propagate this kind of information.” The ex-adviser also claimed that in November 2011 she “sat next to” Putin at a conference and heard him “making it very clear that he saw American fracking as a great threat to Russian interests.” Conaway said that it was not in the US’ “best interest” to be misguided by the RT’s “propaganda.”
Washington has repeatedly mentioned the RT as a threat to the US information policy. The House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after a whistleblower complaint revealed that the president could have pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a July 25 phone call, to investigate possible corruption of former US Vice President Joe Biden — Trump’s key political rival in the 2020 election — and his son Hunter Biden, then-top manager of the local energy company Burisma.
