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From MSNBCpoliticsshows to town hall meetings across the country, the overarching issue for the Democratic Partys base since Trumps victoryhas been Russia, often suffocatingattention forother issues.This fixation has persisted even though ithas no chance to sink the Trump presidency unless it is proven that high levels of the Trump campaign actively colluded with the Kremlin to manipulate the outcome of the U.S. election a claim for which absolutely no evidence has thus far been presented.

The principal problem for Democrats is that so many media figures and online charlatansare personally benefiting from feeding the base increasingly unhinged, fact-free conspiracies just as right-wing media polemicists did after both Bill Clinton and Obama were elected that there are now millions of partisan soldiers absolutely convinced of a Trump/Russia conspiracy for which, at least as of now, there is no evidence. And they are all waiting for the day, which they regard as inevitable and imminent, when this theory will be proven and Trump will be removed.

Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence.

The latest official to throw cold water on the MSNBC-led circus is President Obamas former acting CIA chief Michael Morell. What makes him particularly notable in this context is that Morell was one of Clintons most vocal CIA surrogates. In August, he not only endorsed Clinton in the pages of the New York Times but also became the first high official to explicitly accuse Trump of disloyalty, claiming, In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.

But on Wednesday night, Morell appeared at an intelligence community forum to cast doubt on allegations that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire at all, he said, adding, Theres no little campfire, theres no little candle, theres no spark. And theres a lot of people looking for it.

Obamas former CIA chiefalso cast serious doubt on the credibility of the infamous, explosive dossier originally published by BuzzFeed, saying that its author, Christopher Steele, paid intermediaries to talk to the sources for it.The dossier, he said, doesnt take you anywhere, I dont think.

Morells comments echo the categorical remarks by Obamas top national security official, James Clapper, who told Meet the Press last week that during the time he was Obamas DNI,he saw no evidenceto support claims of a Trump/Russia conspiracy. We had no evidence of such collusion, Clapper stated unequivocally. Unlike Morell, who left his official CIA position in 2013 but remains very integrated into the intelligence community, Clapper was Obamas DNI until just seven weeks ago, leaving on January 20.

Perhaps most revealing of all are the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee charged with investigating these matters who recently told BuzzFeed how petrified they are of what the Democratic base will do if they do not find evidence of collusion, as they now suspect will likely be the case. Theres a tangible frustration over what one official called wildly inflated expectations surrounding the panels fledgling investigation, BuzzFeeds Ali Watkins wrote.

Moreover, several committee sources grudgingly say, it feels as though the investigation will be seen as a sham if the Senate doesnt find a silver bullet connecting Trump and Russian intelligence operatives. One member told Watkins: I dont think the conclusions are going to meet peoples expectations.

What makes all of this most significant is that officials like Clapper and Morell are trained disinformation agents; Clapper in particular has proven he will lie to advance his interests. Yet even with all the incentive to do so, they are refusing to claim there is evidence of such collusion; in fact, they are expressly urging people to stop thinking it exists. As even the law recognizes, statements thatotherwise lack credibility become more believable when they are ones madeagainst interest.

Media figures have similarly begun trying to tamp down expectations. Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, which published the Steele dossier, published an article yesterday warningthat the Democratic bases expectation of a smoking gun is so strong that Twitter and cable news are full of the theories of what my colleague Charlie Warzel calls the Blue Detectives the lefts new version of Glenn Beck, digital blackboards full of lines and arrows. Smith added: It is also a simple fact that while news of Russian actions on Trumps behalf is clear, hard details of coordination between his aides and Putins havent emerged. And Smithscore warning is this:

Trumps critics last year were horrified at the rise of fake news and the specter of a politics shaped by alternative facts, predominantly on the right. They need to be careful now not to succumb to the same delusional temptations as their political adversaries, and not to sink into a filter bubble which, after all, draws its strength not from conservative or progressive politics but from human nature.

And those of us covering the story and the stew of real information, fantasy, and now forgery around it need to continue to report and think clearly about what we know and what we dont, and to resist the sugar high that comes with telling people exactly what they want to hear.

For so long, Democrats demonized and smearedanyone trying to inject basic reason, rationality, and skepticism into this Trump/Russia discourse by labeling them all Kremlin agents and Putin lovers. Just this week, the Center for American Progress released a report using the language of treason to announce the existence of a Fifth Column in the U.S. that serves Russia (similar to Andrew Sullivans notorious 2001 decree that anyone opposing the war on terror composed an anti-American Fifth Column), while John McCain listened to Rand Paul express doubts about the wisdom of NATO further expanding to include Montenegro and then promptly announced: Paul is working for Vladimir Putin.

But with serious doubts and fears now emerging about what the Democratic base has been led to believebyself-interested carnival barkers and partisan hacks, there is a sudden, concerted effort to rein in the excesses of this story. With so many people now doing this, it will be increasingly difficult to smear them all as traitors and Russian loyalists, but it may be far too little, too late, given the pitched hysteria that has been deliberately cultivated around these issues for months. Many Democratshave reached the classic stage of deranged conspiracists where evidence that disproves the theory is viewed as further proof of its existence, and those pointing to it are instantly deemed suspect.

A formal, credible investigation into all these questions, where the evidence is publicly disclosed, is still urgently needed. Thats trueprimarily so that conspiracies no longer linger and these questions are resolved by facts rather than agenda-driven anonymous leaks from the CIA and cable news hosts required to feed a partisan mob.

Its certainly possible to envision an indictment of a low-level operative like Carter Page, or the prosecution of someone like Paul Manafort on matters unrelated to hacking, but the silver bullet that Democrats have been led to expect will sink Trump appears further away than ever.

But given the way these Russia conspiracies have drowned out other critical issues being virtually ignored under the Trump presidency, its vital that everything be done now to make clear what is based in evidence and what is based in partisan delusions. And most of what the Democratic base has been fed for the last six months by their unhinged stable of media, online, and party leaders hasdecisively fallen into the latter category, as even their own officials are now desperately trying to warn.

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Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion - The Intercept