Aaron Maté

"Donald Trump became president through his own conmanship. He didn’t need Russian help with his election, and he may not have got it. Since election day 2016, the controversy over alleged Russian meddling and Trump campaign collusion has consumed Washington and the media. Yet one year later there is still no concrete evidence to support it — let alone any evidence that a Russian intervention might have altered the election result.... US intelligence officials claim that the Russian government hacked emails and used social media to help elect Donald Trump, but there has yet to be any corroboration. Although the often-cited January 2017 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ‘uses the strongest language and offers the most detailed assessment yet,’ The Atlantic observed, ‘it does not or cannot provide evidence for its assertions.’ Noting the ‘absence of any proof’ and ‘hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack,’ the New York Times concluded that the intelligence community’s message ‘essentially amounts to “trust us”.’ That remains the case today."

"Journalism is about following the facts — drawing conclusions and inferences based on the available evidence... In short, I think Mueller’s pro show that the Trump-Russia collusion narrative embraced by the U.S. media political establishment is largely a work of fiction... Whatever allegation is made, there must be concrete evidence."

"I think that that meltdown reflects just like a general hostility they have towards people who are upholding actual progressive values and upholding actual journalism standards. The reason why they slandered me at that time is because I was in Syria and Syria is a, you know, touchy subject for many people on the left... So I’ve been pretty much alone in the U.S. media in covering it and so The Young Turks, instead of covering this story, have ignored it. And then when I went to Syria and I put a short video talking about it, that helped trigger this meltdown."

"Aaron Maté received the Izzy Award for his persistence toward finding out the truth behind the “Russia election collusion” story, primarily during his reporting for “The Nation.” During his acceptance speech, he discussed the importance of relying on factual evidence in journalism. “Journalism is about following the facts — drawing conclusions and inferences based on the available evidence,” Maté said. Maté also spoke about the President Donald Trump and Russia conspiracy. He said he believes the mainstream media has been promulgating a false narrative that Trump colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign. “In short, I think Mueller’s pro show that the Trump-Russia collusion narrative embraced by the U.S. media political establishment is largely a work of fiction,” Maté said. Maté said he believes journalists need to be more skeptical of claims from the intelligence community. “Whatever allegation is made, there must be concrete evidence,” Maté said."

"Aaron Maté, reporter for The Grayzone and host of the “Pushback” podcast, on Monday shot back at accusations from the hosts of The Young Turks (TYT) that he was paid by the Russian government and denied the killing of Syrian children. Maté said the criticism stemmed from his acknowledgement of the U.S. and its allies have “waged a multi-billion dollar dirty war that left Syria in ruins,” as well as his reporting that suggested a 2018 chemical attack in Syria had been staged. Matè’s reporting has suggested that the intergovernmental chemical weapons watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found no evidence of a chemical attack in Syria that triggered retaliatory actions from the U.S. and its allies."