However, we are learning today that one of the campaign advisers, Sam Clovis, that this professor talked with, discussed his conversations with the media today. Clovis maintains that the conversations were basically high-level and of no particular consequence.
Which leads to several obvious questions: shouldn’t Clovis be portraying this “mole” as having more of a point in the conversation? According to Clovis, Russia didn’t even come up. If anything, I take Clovis’ statement to affirm that this idea that the FBI was infiltrating the Trump campaign to be even more of a bogus issue. Like, not just 100% bogus, but like 125% bogus.
What I’d like to know is how the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that set out to destroy Bill Clinton and got George W. Bush and puppet-master Dick Cheney elected, then turned its support to Obama (rather than, let’s say, John McCain!) over Hillary. and then, as far as I can tell, decided that NEITHER Hillary nor Trump was acceptable for their deep state ambitions and went to work on ruining both candidates.
Indeed, I think this is the best way of looking at things. Mr. Trump is a results-oriented boss. He gives broad directives to his upper-level operatives and then they live or die by how well they execute. So one can easily see him giving a broad, general directive to his top peeps (mostly his sons) to see what they can do to destabilize the Clinton campaign, and they proceed to do the dirty work without informing him exactly what’s happening, so his hands stay clean.
Of course, there ARE the phone calls to the blocked numbers just prior to and just after the meeting with the Russian who promised dirt on Clinton… :rolleyes:
Well, all the points I was hoping to make have already been made:
The FBI had good reason to be investigating the Trump campaign; it was full of Russian moles at the same time that the FBI had evidence that Russian was meddling in the election!
The idea that this FBI investigation was underhanded political spying is ridiculous grasping at straws, as evidenced by the fact that the investigation didn’t come to light during the campaign (at a time when another investigation, of Clinton, was all front and center)
Trump’s people are grasping at this straw because it’s all they have. Remember when the whole investigation was ridiculous because it started with a Dossier that was just a political hatchet job funded by the opposition? Well, when it turned out that the Steele Dossier wasn’t the “start” of anything, that was dropped in favor of, “the whole investigation is ridiculous because it started with spying on the campaign for political purposes”. When it comes out that the FBI has been suspicious of Trump’s Russian money laundering since the 90’s, it will probably morph into “This whole thing is ridiculous because Bill Clinton was President when it all started.”
Trump abso-fuckin-lutely knew about Russian coordination. The phone calls by Jr, before and after his meeting with Russian operatives, coupled with Trump’s gleeful public references shortly thereafter, is pretty damning circumstantial evidence.
I believe the phone calls to/from Don Jrs.’ phone were to/from a blocked number. I assume that the FBI can figure out who that blocked number was. If it’s Don Sr., then I’d say they have him dead to rights.
And we the voters are left with the fact that Obama was well aware that Russians were interfering with U.S. elections and he chose not to inform the American voters. Obama may not have wanted to interfere with U.S. elections but he allowed some Russians to do so.
It’s not a matter of ability. Adam Schiff complained that the Republican led House Intelligence Committee simply refused to subpoena the phone records. We can hope that Mueller was not so lackadaisical in his investigation.
And as a conscientious voter, no doubt you would have sung Obama’s praises like a giddy choirboy if he had announced that Russia was attempting to tip the election in favor of Donald Trump.
I’m sure the Right Wing Snowflake Alert System would have been blazing away had Obama chose to reveal that the FBI was investigating Russian ties to Hillary’s opponent. I think Obama’s reasoning was that doing so would be seen as trying to grease the skids for Hillary and that could de-legitimize her presidency.
I was questioning the technical ability to capture those numbers. By no means can we dignify the Nunes activity as “investigation”, there is only one legitimate investigation and I hope that Mueller has the ability to capture that information.
That had to be it. He had finally outgrown his frustrating naivete about the opposition party’s motives, and by no means would have let all that just pass by out of indolence or disinterest.
It was never intended to be, of course - just a way to be able to depict any nonpartisan effort as partisan, so the voluntarily low-information voters could have a way to say “Oh, it’s just the parties bickering again, who knows who’s right. Let’s watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’”. Even the Senate committee, Republican-led as it was and half-hearted as it was, bluntly contradicted Nunes’ whitewash.
Not saying that. Joe Biden and John McCain have sterling records, and their one scandal each in the 80s they were straightforward in copping to. There are good ones out there. But some have some major stank attached to them and I don’t believe for a minute that any politician is hounded unfairly.
Then you ignore the multiple Benghazi investigations. Hillary may not be perfectly clean, but she was not guilty of that one.
And receiving any material support from a foreign national is illegal, so there are legalities involved. Collusion with other governments is illegal because such things must be declared, and they weren’t.
Plus Trump sure doesn’t act like someone not guilty of any crime. Remember, he fired an investigator. That alone is enough in any sane world to realize that he’s guilty of something.
I do recognize that scandals can be overblown and the stories dragged out in the press for much longer than justified. I do agree that this happened to the Clintons several times. They still remain the shadiest political couple in modern history.
I’m sure he’s guilty of many things that would come out of a transparent investigation. Just perhaps not the central allegation being investigated.
Obama really didn’t have any good choices. Probably figured that if Hillary carried the day, then the pressure would be off, and any investigation could proceed. If not calmly, more so. And even if he had “good intelligence”, did he have the sort of evidence he could make public?
“My intelligence people tell me that the Russians want to elect Trump, but that’s all I can tell you because its secret.”
In all the Wal Marts, Home Depots, and Targets in America, there wouldn’t be a single Tiki torch left to buy.
This has nothing to do with a progressive First Lady ( a WOMAN!! OMG!) who wants to make healthcare affordable. If her role was protecting endangered daisies first planted by Jackie O. somewhere on the White House grounds, I don’t even think the word Lewinski would’ve been ever mentioned.
They were certainly the most shat upon by Republicans. And still the only thing that they could make stick was hanky panky in the Oval Office (as if that’s a unique thing).
I don’t believe that for a second. There are far too many points of perfect timing for him not to have known, not to mention the multitude of things he’s done that indicate a quid pro quo, or the mysteriously large number of Russians surrounding him, his family, and his cronies. He’s guilty alright, the issues are whether a) they can prove it and b) he can be made to pay.
Don’t tell me- the NEXT Benghazi investigation is going to find something to hang on her where the previous 19 didn’t. Care to point to something they actually did?