A pernicious political crisis was ignited in Romania by the Biden administration in early December when Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted “large-scale and well-funded” Russian interference was to blame for the unexpected victory of a distinctly Trump-like presidential candidate, Călin Georgescu, in the first round of Romania’s presidential election. (READ MORE: Romania’s Trump Explained: Rejecting ‘Forever Wars’ and Woke Politics)

In a bewildering act of slavish fealty, Bucharest promptly canceled the election’s final round, scheduled for Dec. 8, already underway in polling stations worldwide — despite assurance from the national authority overseeing cybersecurity that the election’s first round was clean.
It was an unprecedented and patently undemocratic move, affirmed by an unpopular incumbent, President Klaus Iohannis, who supported the decision with “declassified” documents alleging manipulation by a “state actor” via TikTok. (Iohannis has held office since 2014. The Romanian constitution says his mandate can only be extended beyond two five-year terms, by law, in cases of war or disaster.)
As no evidence of Russian meddling emerged, Iohannis warned reporters in Brussels, that it’s, ummm, elusive: “Don’t imagine these attacks are signed ‘With love, from the East.’ No, they are very hard to document.”
Russia–Russia!
By Dec. 20, with zero evidence of Russian interference, officials from the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, charged with investigating possible electoral fraud, began leaking what they did find: evidence that the main entity paying hundreds of thousands of euros to about 100 TikTok influencers to promote Georgescu’s platform was … the National Liberal Party (PNL), the sitting president’s political party. Romania’s version of Snoop even unveiled the social marketing firm that wrote scripts for the influencers — nothing odd for these channels or the business of campaigns.
The scheme was supposedly hatched to draw conservative voters t...