Rep. Nancy Pelosi talks about a campaign tactic known as the wrap-up smear. This was back in 2017. This certainly tracks very closely with Democratic tactics in general and specifically with the Trump-Russia story and the Kavanaugh smear.
Take a listen.
So, clearly she is explaining that this is an accepted tactic. Demonize your opponent by telling lies about them. A compliant media then reports the lies. In most cases the lies are reported as facts. They are not reported as unverified or uncorroborated. In cases where there is concern about legal liability, the MSM will wait for some fringe outlet to make the report and then will publish referring to the fringe outlet as the source. Once it has been reported, the politician will use the reports as “proof” of the “truth” of the falsehood.
This happened with the Trump-Russia story during the 2016 campaign. The Steele Dossier, paid for with millions of dollars supplied by intermediaries with connections to the Clinton campaign, was leaked to various media outlets. However, none of the major outlets wanted to run with the story. They were concerned about possible lawsuits. Hillary Clinton became increasingly frustrated and, in fact, she made side references to a possible Russia connection before it came out.
Finally Buzzfeed ran the story. As soon as this happened, major media outlets jumped in with stories referring to the Buzzfeed one. The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
The Clinton campaign tried to milk the story for all the votes that it could muster. In October 2016 a FISA warrant was issued because it was claimed that the press was confirming the possible national intelligence crime. In reality this was an echo chamber created using this smear tactic. Since then, tens of millions of dollars have been spent digging up absolutely no evidence. We are still seeing references to possible Russian collusion.
When lies like this run in the media, they may be stored for future use. During a campaign years later, the lie can be resurrected in a campaign ad to smear the political opponent. There usually is no way to know whether there is any truth to such attack ads.
This approach to political campaigning is corrupt, despicable and deplorable. Unfortunately it also appears to produce votes in an election campaign. This corruption of the election process means that substantive issues that should be the focus of electoral decisions are relegated to the background if not ignored completely. This is especially true of the Democrats who have no ideological basis for what they do. It all comes back to their 1stcommandment.
Based on the recent election I expect we will see more of this tactic. It is time for the voters to wake up and demand better.
There is one to be said about Nancy Pelosi. Perhaps due to her advancing age she is exposing the dark underbelly of the Deep State for all to see if they want to see it.