Yes really.
I’d have to hear Ryan and his tone of voice in the context of the tape before judging whether he was taking it seriously or not. IMHO, this is pretty weak sauce compared to all the other stuff coming out on Trump so far.
Well, yes, compared to. What it might do is suggest that Ryan et al had worries about Trump’s Russian influence way back last summer, and kept mum about these worries for political reasons. If Trump burns over this, I’d like to think that this little bit blows a couple of sparks from the dumpster fire onto Ryan.
It’s almost certainly not any sign of criminal activity, of course, but it may show his willingness to put political ambition over loyalty to the country. If he had such concerns, as a leader of the country, is he morally obligated to do something about them?
That’s what I’d like to spend 2018 asking of him and of anyone else who joined in that conversation.
Ah, yes, you totally ignore the point I’m making by asking an irrelevant question.
If it was a joke, why the denials???
I just wish people on this board would stop coming up with excuses to defend Trump.
Yes, it’s a joke. But it’s a joke that only works if they think there’s some truth to it. And Ryan didn’t say “Don’t let this get out, as they’ll think we’re serious.” He mentioned stuff about the family, appealing to a sense of loyalty, not a sense of “we’re all just joking here.” Keep mum because it will hurt our party, not keep mum because it would be misinterpreted.
Trump had seeming ties to Russia a long time ago, and these guys noticed it, and cracked a joke about it. That’s relevant evidence if they try to claim they didn’t notice. And it’s useful for dating how long they’ve had suspicions.
If you didn’t think that it had value, there would be no need to try and minimize it.
Well, not quite.
The joke about Dana Rohrabacher has to do with the fact that for years he’s been very actively promoting the idea of better relations with Russia. So much so, in fact, that in 2012 the FBI warned him he might become the subject of covert efforts to co-opt him into being an agent for Russia.
Donald Trump by June of 2016 had on numerous occasions promoted the idea of being nice to the Russians. And everyone knew his company tried to do business with the Russians in the past. So the “joke” could very well be simply that Rohrabacher and Trump are the two apparent Russian shills.
As for the admonition by Speaker Ryan to keep the conversation mum, I don’t think that was focused on the “joke” so much as the tenor of the whole conversation. They had been discussing Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraina, as well as in Europe, and they were discussing the information that the DNC had been hacked and that they were speculating that the Russians would be giving that info to someone.
Not saying which version I consider more likely, but one cannot say with certainty that it was because they really believed what McCarthy said was true, any more than one can say with certainty that McCarthy’s comment was obviously a joke that had no hint of reality to it.
Opposing Trump and thinking that the Washington Post shouldn’t blatantly misrepresent things aren’t mutually exclusive.