Ari Melber's Russiagate Key Witnesses Panel

Submission 1,943

Part of a series on Russiagate. [View Related Entries]

About

Ari Melber's Russiagate Key Witnesses Panel refers to a widely-discussed and mocked four-person interview on Ari Melber's MSNBC current events series. The four panelists, Carter Page, Michael Caputo, Sam Nunberg and Jerome Corsi, are considered key witnesses in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.

Origin

On January 23rd, 2019, the Twitter ^[1] account for the news show The Beat With Ari Melber tweeted, "These four key witnesses involved in the Russia probe are talking to @AriMelber on #TheBeat right now." The tweet included a picture of Page, Caputo, Sam Nunberg and Corsi seated together. The tweet received more than 400 retweets and 1,200 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Spread

Many reacted to the panel with surprise and shock as these four panelists are among the most frequently mocked and meme'd due to their incriminating interviews, particularly Nunberg and Page, the former who reportedly appeared on television drunk in 2018.^[2]

New York Times culture writer Sopan Deb tweeted,^[3] "this is almost as good as when the original beach boys reunited to go on tour." The tweet received more than 65 retweets and 435 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Twitter user @MollyJohnFast tweeted,^[4] "This episode of the real presidential aides of Donald Trump is freaking me out." The tweet received more than 170 retweets and 980 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Twitter^[5] user @nick_ramsey tweeted, "… @arimelber throws the wildest dinner parties, you guys." The tweet received more than 30 retweets and 225 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

That day, Twitter^[6] published an Events page regarding the discussion of the interview.