Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al-Qaeda is a threat.

Because a few months ago, when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,

you said Russia.

Not Al-Qaeda. You said Russia.

In the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy bank,

because the Cold War's been over for 20 years.

I'm Sarah Kensier, the author of the bestsellers, the view from flyover country, and hiding in plain sight, and of the upcoming book, They New, how a culture of conspiracy keeps

America complacent, which is out on September 13th and available for

pre-order now. I'm Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker, and the writer and producer of the

journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones, about Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine, a movie that the Kremlin literally

does not want you to see because they keep shutting down screenings.

And this is Gaslit Nation, a podcast covering corruption in the United States and rising

autocracy around the world.

And our opening clip was Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential

election debate where Romney, who was a terrible candidate for that entire election, just a laughably bad, non-person,

politician stuffed into a suit candidate, came out of nowhere and had a rare, intriguing,

odd moment at the time where he called out Russia. And as a Ukrainian American, even I found it odd,

it came out of left field. And he turned out to be vindicated, not because of anything Mitt Romney

did, or by his very nature, his track record ever since then has been pathetic, right?

Cozing up to Trump after Trump stole the election in 2016 with the Kremlin's help.

So how did Mitt Romney get that one now shining moment in that 2012 presidential debate? Well, as I always understood it, since way back in the day, Romney was helped by a American, Latvian, Jewish, really outspoken Putin critic, kind of an eccentric, colorful character that I happened to have the great privilege of knowing by the name of Dan Rapapur.

Dan Rapapur is in my little circle, was always credited with, oh, he's the guy that got Romney

...