DOJ Initial Russia Hearings

[TGHusker]

On 7/31/2018 at 9:29 AM, Clifford Franklin said:

 

What really pisses me off is they've been fairly successful in setting the terms of the debate on the matter.

 

I mean, I assume nobody here is fooled by this. Grandpa Bad Grammar is just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.

 

But they exploit all the millions of people (a majority, probably) who don't have the time or the desire to follow each update in the Russia investigations. These people just pick up on major updates. Hell, many folks probably just view this through the prism of what the president has to say about it. Meaning they're exclusively seeing the investigation as a witch hunt by Democrats, sour grapes about losing an election, a coup by the deep state, blah blah blah.

 

Think about it. They've set the bar for bad at collusion by repeating it ad nauseum. Now everyone seemingly knows the word and there are millions of Americans who think unless collusion happened, nothing bad happened. No they're trying to say even that doesn't matter.

 

Look at this poll of Republicans: "Who do you trust for accurate information?" Trump 73%, friends and family 61%, mainstream media 20%.The margins among strong Trump supports are even more absurd. That sample of Republicans trusts Trump more than their friends or family for facts and info!

What's sad is they're just wearing people down with their BS on the subject and it appears to be working.

 

Tell a lie long enough and often enough - it turns into the truth for the non-discerning.

[TGHusker]

On 7/31/2018 at 3:49 PM, Moiraine said:

 

Not sure. Depends how scared they are of Trump voters.

 

And ya, I’m not looking forward to Pence, but I think it lessens the danger. However I worry that he has a better chance of winning the 2020 election than Trump. On the other hand a fear a coup a lot less with Pence if he loses.

I think Pence will toe the straight republican line and not get too far off the map - he was a congressman, he knows those guys - after Trump - I can't see him going hog wild if he wants to preserve his job.  When you see the boss get the 'whack a mole' you keep your head low.

[commando]

the collusion was the most successful in history?

 

 

[commando]

[Danny Bateman]

Nice.

 

First, I love that his criteria for "good and innocent" is merely someone related to him. 

 

Secondly, sorry, but the ole "I didn't know what I did was against the law" schtick isn't really a legal defense.

 

Good to know he's sweating his idiot adult son's light treason, though.

 

 

[commando]

confession?  i think Mueller will probably save this tweet.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

And remember, at one point, it was even “nobody from my campaign has had contact with Russians”

[TGHusker]

^^^ More on the above.  

The downward spiral into an indictment:

 

Trump and his team:

" It is all fake news and a witch hunt'

"No meeting"

"there was  a meeting - on adoptions"

"No meeting on adoptions"

"Meeting  was on getting info on an opponent"

"Opponent 'research is not illegal"

"Nothing became of the meeting"

"There was no collusion"

"even if there was collusion it isn't illegal"

Next statement will be..........

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-son-s-trump-tower-meeting-russians-meant-get-n897761

[TGHusker]

More to the above.  It is almost like Trump is taunting Mueller to legally demand an interview.  I think Trump thinks he can set the record right if he speaks out but he is his own worse enemy.

 

 

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-tower-meeting-mueller-investigation-tweet-45312664-5ff0-4e89-95f2-df4dab068c15.html

 

 

 

Quote

 

The President of the United States admitted, on the record, that he misled the American people about the infamous Russia meeting in Trump Tower.

The big picture: It’s one of the most striking public reversals in modern presidential history, even though he made a similar point before, and even though it was done casually via an early morning tweet. It involves Russia, Air Force One, a presidential son, shady operatives, allegations of collusion and a federal probe — all in one. 

 

Trump tweeted: "Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"

• This is the same president who dictated a statement to the media saying the meeting was about primarily about the adoption of Russian children, not campaign dirt offered by shady Russians with connections to Putin.
• Why it matters: It’s a striking acknowledgment about a central moment in an international debate over international collusion — and a central moment being scrubbed for illegalities by special counsel Bob Mueller.

 

•  

 

Quote

 

But the context is new, with Mueller's probe — then just ramping up — clearly focused on that meeting and the statement that followed:

• Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel to President Obama who's now a law professor at NYU, said the new tweet weakens an argument for Trump's lawyers "that he shouldn’t have to interview with Mueller because he doesn’t know anything."
• Bauer added: "He said something like this before. But one could read into this tweet ... that the meeting was entirely about opposition research, and that is definitely a change."
• "That will certainly get the prosecutors’ attention. Why the course of misrepresentations, if he doesn’t have something to hide?"
• Michael Barbaro, host of the N.Y. Times podcast "The Daily," pointed out on Twitter: "One of the strangest things about our free-wheeling Tweet presidency is that Trump routinely admits/acknowledges things, in writing, that might require hard-fought testimony from other presidents."

Be smart: Trump insiders believe the president will wind up giving an interview to Mueller.

• Trump wants to, he thinks he can make his own best case, and no one around him can restrain him.
• Said one associate: "He just can't help himself."

 

•  

 

[Mike Mcdee]

Just now, TGHusker said:

More to the above.  It is almost like Trump is taunting Mueller to legally demand an interview.  I think Trump thinks he can set the record right if he speaks out but he is his own worse enemy.

 

 

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-tower-meeting-mueller-investigation-tweet-45312664-5ff0-4e89-95f2-df4dab068c15.html

 

 

 

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•  

 

Part of me thinks he might be bringing up the opposition research angle to play into the Steele dossier. If he thinks the only reason there were FISA warrants and a special council investigation appointment is from that foreign document, he may try to say both sides were using foreign aid. He may be trying to create a false equivalency of the two things. One is state sponsored. The other was actual opposition research originally paid for by the GOP during the primaries and was handed over to DOJ and then the Dems. He may try to say that his oppo research yielded nothing while the Dems was a book of lies. Point being, everybody's doing it. I don't know if this is his plan all along, but I could see him trying to play this angle. 

[TGHusker]

48 minutes ago, Mike Mcdee said:

Part of me thinks he might be bringing up the opposition research angle to play into the Steele dossier. If he thinks the only reason there were FISA warrants and a special council investigation appointment is from that foreign document, he may try to say both sides were using foreign aid. He may be trying to create a false equivalency of the two things. One is state sponsored. The other was actual opposition research originally paid for by the GOP during the primaries and was handed over to DOJ and then the Dems. He may try to say that his oppo research yielded nothing while the Dems was a book of lies. Point being, everybody's doing it. I don't know if this is his plan all along, but I could see him trying to play this angle. 

Problem is (for him if your theory it true) that "everybody's doing it' isn't a valid legal option/defense.  I see a real possibility of him getting sucked into the vortex of his own undoing.

[Danny Bateman]

The Blue Wave just got 10 feet taller.

 

 

[Mike Mcdee]

22 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

Problem is (for him if your theory it true) that "everybody's doing it' isn't a valid legal option/defense.  I see a real possibility of him getting sucked into the vortex of his own undoing.

Oh, I specifically didn't say it was a well thought out plan. I think it's an uneducated and short sighted thought process. "What-aboutism" isn't a legal tactic taught in most law schools. 

[TGHusker]

2 hours ago, Mike Mcdee said:

Oh, I specifically didn't say it was a well thought out plan. I think it's an uneducated and short sighted thought process. "What-aboutism" isn't a legal tactic taught in most law schools. 

Yes I know - you didn't say it wasn't well thought out - it seems few things Trump does is.

[BigRedBuster]

Oh isn't this so special.