“Cornyn also defended Trump over his assertion that he was never briefed on the intelligence assessment, adding: “I think the president can’t single-handedly remember everything, I’m sure that he’s briefed on. But the intelligence officials are familiar with it, and briefed him.””
It’s a lie. Okay, maybe it’s not a lie, but they never told Trump. Okay, maybe they did tell him, but he can’t remember EVERYTHING, you know. FFS.
I hope they try to go with that for a defense. “Oh, Russia paying for the murder of US soldiers? Yeah, we forgot.”
It depends on how specifically they can tie specific events to the failure to act. If this were a scandal in isolation, I’d say, yes, he survives. But given the pandemic response and the fact that our economy is in the trash, this might be the knockout punch. It will depend on whether they can link specific incidents and its aftermath to this revelation.
If we want to evaluate the strength of a particular country, two questions must be asked, and answered:
Do its leaders understand what it means to lead, to be effective leaders?
Do its citizens understand what it means to be effective, responsible, mature citizens?
So, as it applies to the United States, what do you all think?
When the leader is dumb and mentally ill he can’t lead anything . He would screw up a 1 car funeral procession.
Trump’s fans don’t believe anything that conflicts with their ultra-competent view of him.
Stick the current administration in a bus and call it a clown parade.
True. But how did he get into the White House in the first place? Who gave the drunken chimpanzee the keys to the corvette?
“American officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account, which was among the evidence that supported their conclusion that Russia covertly offered bounties for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.”
Has Trump started claiming that the people who decided not to tell him have already been fired for incompetence?
I had images of suitcases of cash exchanged in divey cafes or back alleys a la Miami Vice. 
Wire transfers make it sound much more formal, institutional, and banality-of-evil than that. And transfers into a Taliban bank account tend to bear out k9bfriender’s guess regarding the bounties going to Taliban leaders rather than the triggermen.
Are you coming back to address the further developments?
If Trump, Putin, the Taliban, Trump’s stooge at DNI, and some jackass at Russia Times all deny something, can there be any doubt that it’s true? If that crew denies that the apocalypse is coming tomorrow, better pack your shit and watch for the horses.
The troubling aspect is that Trump hasn’t come out and said he would get to the bottom of this. Sure, it could be fake, but he’s outright dismissed it while information is slowly being released that gives the claims some merit. Instead he’s too busy putting 10 year prison sentences on people who throw paint on statues.
He can’t say that, because that would be admitting he wasn’t on top of everything in the first place.
Russia is sure having some fun now, trolling Trump.
Maybe this will help them get back into the G7, eh?
The Electoral College and a minority of the voters in the election.
That’s right. Trump can’t ever admit fault. If he says ‘now that I know this, I demand a major investigation’ he is admitting that he failed to ‘know this’ even after multiple intelligence agencies and other nations ‘knew this.’
So the WH approach will be Deny and Attempt To Distract.
Now is the time for Hungary (or maybe Turkey) to produce their “proof” that Joe Biden is a pedophile who has taken bribes from the Nigerian radicals planning the armed overthrow of the USA in cooperation with Hillary’s crack troop of Kenyan mercenaries … right?
Yes, he lost the popular vote, but it’s not like he lost it by much. And in the end, this is the republic we have.
My point is that Trump is a candidate so awful that he shouldn’t have advanced anywhere in the primaries. But advance he did. Win the presidency he did.
And that collective electoral catastrophe happened for many of the same reasons that we’re seeing the current public health catastrophe.