So it’s been a strange day on Capitol Hill, as the power went out at a congressional hearing for the new CIA director just as the lead Democrat was criticizing Russia, while C-SPAN’s TV feed got mysteriously replaced by the Russian propaganda network, RT, this afternoon.

First, the Senate confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to head the CIA. The power went out conveniently when the top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Mark Warner, was about to speak.

Adding to the mystery, Warner was talking about Russia’s hacking of our election when the power went out, just as he was about to say the word “Russia.” (I am not making this up.) Here is what Warner was going to Russia — right before “Russia,” boom no lights:

“Chairman Burr and I have committed to conduct a review of the intelligence supporting the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in order to undermine public faith in our democratic process,” Mr. Warner was saying.

They had to move the hearing to another room.

Then, on the House side, C-SPAN got mysteriously replaced for ten minutes by the feed from Russian government propaganda network RT (aka Russia Today).

Again, I’m not making this up.

Here’s the moment Russia Today took over the C-SPAN1 feed. Unclear what happened. RT aired for about ten minutes before C-SPAN1 came back. pic.twitter.com/mhWVgCoFxF — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 12, 2017

That’s one heck of a coincidence, both “glitches” have to deal with Russia.

C-SPAN just put out a statement saying they’re hoping this was simply some crossed wires on their end, but while RT is claiming C-Span has exonerated them, it most certainly has not. C-Span simply offered a possible explanation, even though they haven’t yet figured out what happened.

Here’s C-SPAN’s statement:

And here are the Russians lying about C-SPAN’s statement:

The mysterious Russia-related happenings on the Hill happened not one day after Donald Trump loudly complained about a bombshell memo accusing the Russians of having gathered compromising information about the incoming American president, and accusing his staff of secretly collaborating with the Russians during the campaign.

As I said, that’s one heck of a coincidence.

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