past months about the Russian meddling
in our election there's one question
that rarely gets asked and answered does
the United States do the same thing to
influence other countries to have a
pro-american result and if so with what
rate of success joining me now is Dobb
Levin
he's a postdoctoral fellow in the
Institute for politics and strategy at
Carnegie Mellon University he has
studied this issue dr. Levin first of
all what do you bring to the table in
terms of bias are you looking at this
with a jaundiced eye or you just tried
to determine what has taken place well I
come from a social science perspective I
began studying this long beyond before
this issue became you know daily a news
issue and I'm trying to learn there what
are the facts in this to God and provide
them to a decision makers and to the
general public
okay I just didn't want people to think
that you come with a preconceived bias
tell me about your research summarize
briefly what you did and what you found
when they I study a partisan and extol
interventions in other words situations
when great powers intervene in elections
and other countries and an attempt to
determine that the election result and I
find when it comes to the case of the
United States the United States
intervened in a d elections of this in
elections in this manner in
countries for this purpose between
and give me an example well one
example of such intervention occurred in
Italy in where the United States
was worried about the possibility of the
Communist Party winning the election
there so we basically basically did
everything including therefore engage
the kitchen sink in order to prevent it
from winning the election everything
from increasing JRA to the to the
Italian the government to fastening that
all eight totally would be cut off in
case that that the a communist party
would win to giving very large amounts
of the covert
a campaign funding to the Christian
Democratic Party to a designing game a
campaign to designing campaign name and
materials for the Christian Democrats
and other techniques you say that
times in countries between let's
put this up on the screen I think we've
got a list of the year the US
has sought to influence the outcome of
an election by the way are we good at
this are we successful well my research
finds that basically an average and
decided to assist in gets a bump of
about % to dare a vote chair but that
is an average effect in other words
sometimes the effect is much larger and
sometimes it is much less so to speak
your research ended in the year the
berth really of the Internet age and era
have we ever done what the Russians are
bad we ever hacked we did not they use
the computer hacking no in each of these
instances because this has quite a
negative connotation to hear that some
will take away from this well the US has
done a to has it always been in the name
of democracy have we always sought to
oppose communism have we always sought
to oppose a theology governing a
nation's politics I mean what's the
common denominator that has guided the
United States
well of course sometimes we assisted you
know pro-democracy candidates sometimes
of course we assisted they and sometimes
we of course assisted you know so
Italian minded and makeup candidate you
know it varied from case to case
and from situation to situation right
authoritarian though in opposition to to
who or to what I take it a thought we
went with the authoritarian less a
nation should be ruled by a communist is
that the kind of a devil's choice that
the United States had to make that's
what makes ends the case during the Cold
War
yes that was frequently our situation
yeah
our our our efforts have they been
covert or overt and if your answer is
both
which is more effective when basically I
find that about two-thirds of these type
of things were a covert and about a
third were overt and I find that the
overt will usually be more effective
than the covert in this regard the overt
is more effective meaning we openly are
supportive of one candidate or party
over the others we make our financial
support known that has a better track
record than trying to do it as some
would say on the down-low
exactly it's a fascinating analysis I
leave to the Facebook posts and the
tweeters whether there's any kind of a
moral equivalence here Dov Levin thank
you for being here I appreciate it thank
you for inviting me keep your tweets
coming more like this and Facebook posts
what do we have Smerconish you are so
carrying Putin and Trump's water saying
US medals in election after the Russians
it's unbelievable
Sandra Sandra listen to me watch the
whole show okay don't pick and choose
watch the whole show and then tell me
what you think harrying Trump's water
where you're not watching Roger Waters
the interview that I did in the segment
that we just broadcast where the most
successful and controversial concert
tour of the summer season is all
predicated not all predicated largely
predicated on an anti-trump diatribe and
I had a conversation with that artist
and now I'm carrying Trump's water give
me another one I'm carrying nobody's
water but my own which is independent
thinking clouds to the left of me
Joker's to the right stuck in the metal
I think you mean middle sorry Mike I
couldn't help myself yes Steve loved it
stealers wheel it's the theme song of my
Sirius XM program and that is how I feel
clouds to the left of me and and Joker's
to the right got to keep moving
still to come your best and worst tweets
please stay with us