Morgan Freeman declares war on Russia

In America’s darkest hour, five unlikely heroes will rise above the nation’s corruption and lethargy to form a website that will at last speak truth to power and say what President Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge: we’re at war, baby!

That’s the bombshell revelation presented today by the folks behind the Committee to Investigate Russia, a new “nonprofit effort” designed to “help Americans understand and recognize the scope and scale of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy.” The group’s advisory board consists of Rob Reiner, the director of “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride,” James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence, and three neoconservative political commentators.

To promote the launch, board members made the rounds on American cable television this Tuesday, explaining the group’s genesis. Reiner told CNN, “I don’t know that the public understands the gravity of what the Russians were able to do. [...] And so I started reaching out to people who are patriots.”

The committee also released a two-minute video starring the actor Morgan Freeman, who begins the promo by declaring, “We have been attacked. We are at war.”

If the early reactions on Twitter from reporters and Russia specialists are any indication, the Committee to Investigate Russia has achieved a remarkable feat, making a mockery of the U.S. government’s legitimate investigation into Russian election interference — just days after journalists learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team obtained a search warrant to get information from Facebook about Russian-linked ads run during the campaign.

Meduza has collected some of the harshest, most amusing, and inspired responses to Rob Reiner’s new “effort.”

Wait, why am I looking at Morgan Freeman?

Who are these people?

Did Morgan Freeman just declare war on Russia?

The committee even ran into trouble when trying to identify General Valery Gerasimov, the author of an alleged hybrid military doctrine that some analysts treat as the blueprint for Russia's “information warfare” against enemies like the U.S. and Ukraine. When the committee first launched its website, it accidentally posted a photo of Gerasimov's predecessor, General Nikolay Makarov. The group eventually corrected its mistake, but not before Russian media expert Alexey Kovalev called them out, highlighting the rather obvious dangers of taking on “Russia” without Russian expertise.

Kevin Rothrock

Photo on front page: Sipa USA / Vida Press