[News] Trump, Russia, and the 2016 Election

All news related to Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia and to the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. New details should be cited to reputable sources.

More troubling is that none of the whistleblower’s cheerleaders in the press and Congress seem to care about the precedent of making a President’s private calls with other world leaders open to public scrutiny. Imagine if this happened to JFK ’s calls amid the Cuban Missile Crisis or to Richard Nixon ’s during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. We have reached a dangerous pass if intelligence officials feel they have open season to use whistleblower laws whenever they dislike a President or one of his policies.

This was just stupid.

we have reached a dangerous pass if intelligence officials use laws to give information to Congress! And hat would happen if they didn't like a President and refered their calls to Congress! Oh f*ck! There would be checks and balances! The President couldn't just do anything anytime! Dammit people! Sweet crap. How can we have a dictator if they constantly have to have co-equal government bodies?

Yeah I don't know how you take an article that is critical of the president and make it more damning of his opponents for calling him out... on f*cking collusion! And then disregarding the whistleblower as this unknowable and questionable entity being brandish by partisan presidential rivals is obscene.

Good god man, what is wrong with you? President Trump would be all fine and dandy if it wasn't for his pesky political narcissism?

Art Buchwald wrote:

These are difficult times for people who are defending the Nixon administration. No matter where they go they are attacked by pseudo-liberals, McGovern lovers, heterosexual constitutionalists and paranoid John Dean believers.

As a public service, I am printing instant responses for loyal Nixonites when they are attacked at a party. Please cut it out and carry it in your pocket.

1. Everyone does it.

2. What about Chappaquiddick?

3. A President can’t keep track of everything his staff does.

4. The press is blowing the whole thing up.

5. Whatever Nixon did was for national security.

6. The Democrats are sore because they lost the election.

7. Are you going to believe a rat like John Dean or the president of the United States?

8. Wait till all the facts come out.

9. What about Chappaquiddick?

10. If you impeach Nixon, you get Agnew.

11. The only thing wrong with Watergate is they got caught.

12. What about Daniel Ellsberg stealing the Pentagon Papers?

13. It happens in Europe all the time.

14. People would be against Nixon no matter what he did.

15. I’d rather have a crook in the White House than a fool.

16. LBJ used to read FBI reports every night.

17. What’s the big deal about finding out what your opposition is up to?

18. The president was too busy running the country to know what was going on.

19. What about Chappaquiddick?

20. People that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

21. McGovern would have lost anyway.

22. Maybe the Committee for the Re-Election of the President when a little too far, but they were just a bunch of eager kids.

23. I’m not for breaking the law, but sometimes you have to do it to save the country.

24. Nixon made a mistake. He’s only human.

25. Do you realize what Watergate is doing to the dollar abroad?

26. What about Harry Truman and the deep freeze scandal?

27. Franklin D. Roosevelt did a lot of worse things.

28. I’m sick and tired of hearing about Watergate and so is everyone else.

29. This thing should be tried in the courts and not on TV.

30. When Nixon gives his explanation of what happened there are going to be a lot of people in this country with egg on their faces.

31. My country right or wrong.

32. What about Chappaquiddick?

33. I think the people who make all this fuss about Watergate should be shot.

34. If the Democrats had the money they would have done the same thing.

35. I never did trust Haldeman and Ehrlichman.

36. If you say one more word about Watergate I’ll punch you in the nose.

A. If the person is bigger than you: “If you say one more word about Watergate I’m leaving this house.”

B. If it’s your own house and the person is bigger than you: “What about Chappaquiddick?”

Wow...somethings never change.

To be fair, Buckwald was a humorist.

And, to also be fair, the modern GOP was built by people who thought Nixon got a raw deal and who worked tirelessly to push the idea that the President is essentially a king whose ideas and actions should never be questioned, let alone challenged.*

*Offer valid only for Republican presidents.

As I get older, I become more convinced that Ford shouldn't have pardoned Nixon and that Clinton should have resigned.

Pardoning Nixon papered over the problems--which the Republicans were happy to go along with--and got us to where we are today.

If Clinton had resigned, we would have had Al Gore, who would have been more likely to win in 2000 as an incumbent and might have benefited from voters who thought Clinton got a raw deal. And he wanted to actually do something about that "global warming" thing.

Also Jimmy Carter got a raw deal, Lincoln's assassination was one of the worst possible outcomes and has delayed atonement for the founding sins of this nation, and Andrew Jackson was kind of nasty.

Gremlin wrote:

Andrew Jackson was a monster.

FTFY. One of the most infuriating things about living in Nashville is the deification of this nightmare of a human being.

Vox: Steve Mnuchin’s efforts to spin Trump’s Ukraine scandal were a disaster

One cringe-inducing moment came on Meet the Press, when host Chuck Todd asked Mnuchin to explain why Ukraine was provided with $140 million more in US aid than initially expected. Todd asked Mnuchin to account for “how all of the sudden, when the [Ukraine] aid got released, more money showed up. Where did [it] come from? ... they got an additional $140 million they didn’t expect.” Mnuchin hemmed and hawed for about 20 seconds before trying to move on.

Todd was referencing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement earlier this month that his country received $140 million more than they expected from the United States — one that came weeks after any US government aid to Ukraine was held up, and at the end of a summer in which President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, repeatedly asked the Ukrainians to open a “corruption” investigation aimed at implicating Hunter Biden, a son of the former vice president. The Treasury Department oversees foreign aid payments, but Mnuchin’s answer was underwhelming.

“You’re getting into details,” Mnuchin said, declining to do so himself. He then alluded to Trump’s desire for Ukraine to investigate the Biden family and said, “these were not connected issues.”

Gremlin wrote:

If Clinton had resigned, we would have had Al Gore, who would have been more likely to win in 2000 as an incumbent and might have benefited from voters who thought Clinton got a raw deal. And he wanted to actually do something about that "global warming" thing.

Also might not have been asleep at the wheel for 9/11. And even if it had happened, he would have at least attacked the correct country, not Iraq.

Sometimes I'd like to live in the prime timeline, Earth 1, 616, B (Fringe) or wherever things aren't crazy.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/StCElmc.png)

Trump here is following the same script as he did with the Hillary - Uranium One accusations: take a non-event that happened years ago, that everyone at the time knew about, and paint it as something corrupt, even though the GOP-controlled Congress didn't even think it was worth a single investigation.

Art Buchwald wrote:
These are difficult times for people who are defending the Nixon administration. No matter where they go they are attacked by pseudo-liberals, McGovern lovers, heterosexual constitutionalists and paranoid John Dean believers.

As a public service, I am printing instant responses for loyal Nixonites when they are attacked at a party. Please cut it out and carry it in your pocket.

Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you - tell the truth!

Sweet Home Alabama

Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say

WaPo wrote:

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president had “concerns” and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.

Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an “interagency process” but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.

Can't get your quo without first having a little quid.

Wapo notification:
Trump says he has authorized release of transcript of call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/RCRFX0m.png)

To be honest, in this case, I think Trump has to release everything. The whistleblower will have no choice but to leak everything, and maybe even go public themselves.

Remember, this case involves more than a phone call, but several acts by the president that makes this case.

From Adam Schiff's twitter:
We have been informed by the whistleblower’s counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the Acting DNI as to how to do so.

We‘re in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower’s testimony as soon as this week.

Tanglebones wrote:

From Adam Schiff's twitter:
We have been informed by the whistleblower’s counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the Acting DNI as to how to do so.

We‘re in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower’s testimony as soon as this week.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/MPLpvJcsWvrkk/giphy.gif)

And, to be clear, this is a big deal, and a sign, I think, that they understand the gameplay now.

Trump is releasing the transcript because, alone, it's not bad. Russia leverages the bot army, and the discussion again becomes about how the press keeps blowing things out of proportion. But the whistleblower acts immediately to get ALL the evidence out, blunting Trump's transcript. It has to be done quickly, because we saw how well it worked with the Mueller Report.

Instead of letting people assume the worst for weeks and weeks, the facts behind full complaint gets out at the same time, making the propaganda move look more obvious.

Acting DNI will say no. The reason Coates resigned and strenuously recommended his deputy resign is because he knew they wouldn't allow the testimony.

And then the whistleblower will go to the press. They want this out.

TPM: Pence Gave Ukraine the Message Too

Q: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. I wanted to ask you about your meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President and for an update on Ukrainian security aid money.

Specifically, number one, did you discuss Joe Biden at all during that meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President? And number two, can you assure Ukraine that the hold-up of that money has absolutely nothing to do with efforts, including by Rudy Giuliani, to try to dig up dirt on the Biden family?

VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: Well, on the first question, the answer is no. But we — with President Zelensky yesterday, we discussed — we discussed America’s support for Ukraine and the upcoming decision the President will make on the latest tranche of financial support in great detail.

The President asked me to meet with President Zelensky and to talk about the progress that he’s making on a broad range of areas. And we did that.

We, as I said yesterday, especially since Russian aggression — the illegal occupation of Crimea and Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine — the United States has stood strong with Ukraine and we will continue to stand strong with Ukraine for its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

But as President Trump had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of corruption. And, fortunately, President Zelensky was elected decisively on an anti-corruption message. And he and I discussed yesterday that as he’s assembled his cabinet, and as his parliament has convened, that even in the early days, he informed me that there have been more than 250 bills filed for — that address the issue of public corruption and really restoring integrity to the public process.

I mean, to invest additional taxpayer in Ukraine, the President wants to be assured that those resources are truly making their way to the kind of investments that will contribute to security and stability in Ukraine. And that’s an expectation the American people have and the President has expressed very clearly.

We also talked in some detail about what other European nations are doing for Ukraine. The simple fact is that the United States has carried the load on most of the security investments in Ukraine. And we have been proud to do that, but we believe it’s time for our European partners to step forward and make additional investments to stand with the people of Ukraine as they assert their territorial integrity and sovereignty.

President Zelensky and I talked in great detail about ongoing discussions about resolving the ongoing violence and occupation of Ukraine. And those were the issues that we covered.

But I assured him that the people of the United States stand with Ukraine for their sovereignty and territorial integrity. But I called on him to work with us to engage our European partners to participate at a greater level in Ukraine, and also told him that I would carry back to President Trump the progress that he and his administration in Ukraine are making on dealing with corruption in their country.

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/st...

The Senate has *unanimously* agreed to Schumer's resolution calling for the whistleblower complaint to be turned over the intelligence committees immediately.
Tanglebones wrote:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/st...

The Senate has *unanimously* agreed to Schumer's resolution calling for the whistleblower complaint to be turned over the intelligence committees immediately.

Love living in a time where Congress has to beg the president to follow the law.

IF, and this is a mighty big "if," this is actually a bipartisan effort as indicated by the Senate vote, then it's over for Trump.

Rat Boy wrote:

IF, and this is a mighty big "if," this is actually a bipartisan effort as indicated by the Senate vote, then it's over for Trump.

Among others..

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...

I mentioned below that the key thing about this latest and most egregious Trump scandal is that his senior team was clearly in on it, aware of it, participated in it. One key person here is Vice President Mike Pence. Earlier this month Pence flew to Poland to fill in for President Trump in meetings with European leaders on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. On September 1st, he met in Warsaw with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The next day he held a press conference with President Duda of Poland at which he was specifically asked whether he had pressed Zelensky to manufacture damaging information about Joe Biden and whether military aid was being held up until he did.

Pence started by saying he hadn’t and then proceeded to give an answer that made it pretty clear that he had, even if he had not mentioned the former Vice President by name. It caught the ear’s of everyone who was already following this story. It’s even more clear with what we learned last week.

This could be why Pelosi was dragging this out for so long, that if Pence was in on it too, he'd be thrown out and that'd make her president. And that'd look like a power grab to the GOP, a similar situation facing the Speaker of the House during the Watergate era after Agnew resigned as VP.

Honestly, if we can take Pence down with him, then the last two years, waiting for this was worth it.

Jayhawker wrote:

Honestly, if we can take Pence down with him, then the last two years, waiting for this was worth it.

Not sure I'd go so far as "worth it," but it would certainly be a welcome consolation nonetheless.