President Donald Trump: The Thread

[caulfield12]

 

Trump Gave Info To Russians CNN Was Asked Not To Report For Fear Of Losing Lives

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-gave-russi...-225316633.html

 

 

When a CNN reporter was asked by Trump administration officials not to report the name of the city where intelligence had been collected on ISIS, the network agreed not to do it. President Donald Trump, though, slipped the details to Russian officials.

 

In March, CNN’s Evan Perez learned from intelligence officials that ISIS was developing explosives to be hidden in electronic devices and activated on international flights. Perez was asked not to reveal the city where the intelligence came from, because “it would, they insisted, get people killed,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said Tuesday. Perez did not include the name of the city in his story for the cable network.

 

But in a meeting with Russian officials last week, Trump revealed classified information to one of America’s greatest adversaries. Part of that information reportedly included naming the city where the ISIS intelligence came from.

 

“It’s the same city,” Tapper said in a scathing takedown. “It’s the same city that CNN was cautioned not to report.”

[Jenksismyhero]

profiles in cowardice

 

NEW: @SpeakerRyan just told rank-and-file Rs that Congress needs to stick with ongoing committee process and use it to get facts on Russia

— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) May 17, 2017

 

Honestly though, that's the smart play on his/their part. They get nothing from going after Trump. They lose some of their base if they do that. They can sit back, be quiet, and let Trump hang himself.

Edited May 17, 2017 by JenksIsMyHero

[Jenksismyhero]

"Listen, the President is a dumb child, you can't take him at his word!" is an interesting spin they're trying to put on both the Russia intel and Comey stories.

 

I bet that's the truth. He's a bulls***ter. He doesn't care about details. He doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. He's totally in over his head. All of these mistakes are chalked up to "moron that doesn't understand what he's doing and why it can be perceived as unethical/illegal." Take the Comey firing - he was shocked it got a negative reaction. He clearly didn't think it through. Same with the Russian leak stuff. He just started bulls***ting in his meeting, completely oblivious to the fact that he was going to get a spy killed.

Edited May 17, 2017 by JenksIsMyHero

[StrangeSox]

Honestly though, that's the smart play on his/their part. They get nothing from going after Trump. They lose some of their base if they do that. They can sit back, be quiet, and let the Trump hang himself.

 

That only works to the point where Trump stalls their entire legislative agenda and causes Dem wave in 2018, though. Paul Ryan is one of if not the most unpopular politicians in the country right now.

 

They're not in a great place either way, imo. Either piss off their base and fracture the party by going after Trump/working with Democrats, or piss everyone else off and energize Democrats by carrying water for what's quickly become the most incompetent and likely most corrupt administration in history in a little over 100 days.

[StrangeSox]

I bet that's the truth. He's a bulls***ter. He doesn't care about details. He doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. He's totally in over his head. All of these mistakes are chalked up to "moron that doesn't understand what he's doing and why it can be perceived as unethical/illegal." Take the Comey firing - he was shocked it got a negative reaction. He clearly didn't think it through. Same with the Russian leak stuff. He just started bulls***ting in his meeting, completely oblivious to the fact that he was going to get a spy killed.

 

Oh absolutely.

 

It's just a really, really bad quality to have in the President of the United States. His staff pretty clearly has zero respect for him.

[bmags]

Honestly though, that's the smart play on his/their part. They get nothing from going after Trump. They lose some of their base if they do that. They can sit back, be quiet, and let Trump hang himself.

 

They are the ones who let him hang. I know what you mean, but frankly I'm not interested in their political motivations. Aside from something grossly unethical and a red line that the nation has not let cross before (obstruction of justice on an investigation of the president), they have now ample evidence in the last week that he is dangerously incompetent. Dangerously. The blurting out to Russia. The western wall comment. The reports that people are putting Trumps name into as many paragraphs as they can just to keep him reading.

 

He can't do this job. At some point you'd want the responsibility as citizen reps to say "listen, we had a fun weekend dressing him up, but Bernie is dead"

[bmags]

I bet that's the truth. He's a bulls***ter. He doesn't care about details. He doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. He's totally in over his head. All of these mistakes are chalked up to "moron that doesn't understand what he's doing and why it can be perceived as unethical/illegal." Take the Comey firing - he was shocked it got a negative reaction. He clearly didn't think it through. Same with the Russian leak stuff. He just started bulls***ting in his meeting, completely oblivious to the fact that he was going to get a spy killed.

 

I think it's 100% the truth, and that any russian investigation will find that Trump is often a useful stooge that is flattered into immoral, possibly illegal, but certainly unethical conduct that he doesn't know enough to care.

 

But, in this case, even if he's ignorant of how awful it is for him to ask the head of fbi to be lenient on a colleague, he followed it up by firing the director.

[StrangeSox]

Democrats coming out swinging in this morning's briefing about Congressional Republicans running cover for Trump.

[Jenksismyhero]

They are the ones who let him hang. I know what you mean, but frankly I'm not interested in their political motivations. Aside from something grossly unethical and a red line that the nation has not let cross before (obstruction of justice on an investigation of the president), they have now ample evidence in the last week that he is dangerously incompetent. Dangerously. The blurting out to Russia. The western wall comment. The reports that people are putting Trumps name into as many paragraphs as they can just to keep him reading.

 

He can't do this job. At some point you'd want the responsibility as citizen reps to say "listen, we had a fun weekend dressing him up, but Bernie is dead"

 

The problem is "can't do the job" is not an impeachable offense. Nor is that a standard we want to start holding Presidents too (candidates yes, but not after they've been sworn in). If that's the case, every 4 years, regardless of party affiliation, we'll have calls for impeachment. They can't go after Trump for looking un-presidential. In a lot of ways that's why he got elected. People wanted something new/different in Washington, and they certainly got it.

 

And the Comey firing, the intelligence leak...those are in a grey area of legality. So although stupid, unprofessional, unethical, etc. I think you'd be hard pressed to find judges, let alone congressman, willing to call it illegal and impeachable.

 

But hey, it's not 5pm yet, let's see what happens today!

[StrangeSox]

The qualifier for impeachment isn't committing an illegal act, though. It's "high crimes and misdemeanors," and it's entirely up to the House and Senate to determine what that exactly means. Bill Clinton was never convicted of a crime and the House still impeached him. It also didn't kick off a succession of serious attempts at impeachment of the next Presidents.

 

The 25th Amendment would also give Pence and his cabinet more than enough room to remove Trump from office for being "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Gross incompetence that seriously undermines the country's national security seems like an acceptable standard to hold the President to.

 

The country is at risk not only from executive incompetence but from a general inability to be governed right now.

Edited May 17, 2017 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

Ultimately, though, speculations about impeachment or 25th amendment are extremely premature because many Republicans are already falling inline behind Trump.

 

[StrangeSox]

"Joke" seems pretty unlikely since he asked everyone else to leave the room before making this "joke"

[bmags]

The problem is "can't do the job" is not an impeachable offense. Nor is that a standard we want to start holding Presidents too (candidates yes, but not after they've been sworn in). If that's the case, every 4 years, regardless of party affiliation, we'll have calls for impeachment. They can't go after Trump for looking un-presidential. In a lot of ways that's why he got elected. People wanted something new/different in Washington, and they certainly got it.

 

And the Comey firing, the intelligence leak...those are in a grey area of legality. So although stupid, unprofessional, unethical, etc. I think you'd be hard pressed to find judges, let alone congressman, willing to call it illegal and impeachable.

 

But hey, it's not 5pm yet, let's see what happens today!

 

Yeah I am with you, I don't think 25th amend is responsible. I'm saying protecting him from an investigation in this likely impeachable offense is only allowing a man who is dangerously incompetent at the wheel. Nixon, while an author to many deplorable foreign policy tactics, had shown he could at least hold the levers of the government in a manner within the realms of what we expect from presidents.

[CrimsonWeltall]

The problem is "can't do the job" is not an impeachable offense.

 

It is. The "high crimes and misdemeanors" phrase includes basically anything including incompetence or abuse of power.

 

Nor is that a standard we want to start holding Presidents too (candidates yes, but not after they've been sworn in). If that's the case, every 4 years, regardless of party affiliation, we'll have calls for impeachment. They can't go after Trump for looking un-presidential. In a lot of ways that's why he got elected. People wanted something new/different in Washington, and they certainly got it.

 

We're well beyond looking un-presidential. Even if he were a good person, he doesn't have the mental faculties to do the job.

 

And the Comey firing, the intelligence leak...those are in a grey area of legality. So although stupid, unprofessional, unethical, etc. I think you'd be hard pressed to find judges, let alone congressman, willing to call it illegal and impeachable.

 

But hey, it's not 5pm yet, let's see what happens today!

 

 

Between the Comey memo, the Comey firing, and the public threat to Comey, there's a good case for obstruction of justice. But again, a crime isn't necessary for impeachment.

[Dick Allen]

"Joke" seems pretty unlikely since he asked everyone else to leave the room before making this "joke"

Yeah, he had Pence and Sessions leave the room to joke with Comey about getting the investigation off Flynn.

 

The real jokes are the people who come up with these excuses.

[StrangeSox]

Yeah I am with you, I don't think 25th amend is responsible. I'm saying protecting him from an investigation in this likely impeachable offense is only allowing a man who is dangerously incompetent at the wheel. Nixon, while an author to many deplorable foreign policy tactics, had shown he could at least hold the levers of the government in a manner within the realms of what we expect from presidents.

 

Nixon was completely off the rails and usually heavily drunk by the end, and the never-100%-confirmed-but-likely-true story is that the SecDef made sure everyone knew that any nuclear launch order had to come directly from him.

 

Nixon was a whole hell of a lot smarter than Trump until Watergate snapped him, though.

[StrangeSox]

Yeah, he had Pence and Sessions leave the room to joke with Comey about getting the investigation off Flynn.

 

The real jokes are the people who come up with these excuses.

 

A memo from the FBI director detailing the conversation he had isn't "hearsay," either. These guys are just really dumb or think their constituents are.

[shipps]

I have a feeling that we arent going to get out of this one easy. It would be too easy for Trump to get impeached. This country seems to deserve at least 4 years of misfortune for its ignorant ways. The fact that we would elect and continue to defend the presidency of this reality show clown proves we need to hit a rock bottom before we can start to rebuild.

[StrangeSox]

more cowardice

 

[Jenksismyhero]

The qualifier for impeachment isn't committing an illegal act, though. It's "high crimes and misdemeanors," and it's entirely up to the House and Senate to determine what that exactly means. Bill Clinton was never convicted of a crime and the House still impeached him. It also didn't kick off a succession of serious attempts at impeachment of the next Presidents.

 

The 25th Amendment would also give Pence and his cabinet more than enough room to remove Trump from office for being "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Gross incompetence that seriously undermines the country's national security seems like an acceptable standard to hold the President to.

 

The country is at risk not only from executive incompetence but from a general inability to be governed right now.

 

High crimes and misdemeanors, as a recall from my law school days, requires some sort of abuse of power. It's obviously close here, but i'm not sure if Trump requesting that Comey not fire Flynn or that he not investigate him is really an abuse. He didn't order him to stop. Comey obviously didn't feel threatened enough to stop. And his firing, while a terrible look, is within his rights since Trump was technically Comey's boss.

[Jenksismyhero]

A memo from the FBI director detailing the conversation he had isn't "hearsay," either. These guys are just really dumb or think their constituents are.

 

Well, technically it IS hearsay (an out of court statement being used to prove the matter asserted), but it would still be allowed as it falls under at least one of the exceptions to admitting hearsay evidence - party admissions. It's a note about what Trump said directly to Comey.

 

edit: "it" being Trump's statement that Comey noted in his memo.

Edited May 17, 2017 by JenksIsMyHero

[StrangeSox]

[StrangeSox]

Well, technically it IS hearsay (an out of court statement being used to prove the matter asserted), but it would still be allowed as it falls under at least one of the exceptions to admitting hearsay evidence - party admissions. It's a note about what Trump said directly to Comey.

 

edit: "it" being Trump's statement that Comey noted in his memo.

 

Okay, I'll trust the lawyers to know the actual technical definition. Either way, detailed contemporaneous notes by a law enforcement officer on a conversation they had being dismissed as "heresay [sic]" is just ridiculous.

[StrangeSox]

Stephen Miller is the main guy drafting Trump's speech on Islam he intends to give in Saudi Arabia.

 

Yikes.

[StrangeSox]

WSJ: Russian State-Run Bank Financed Deal Involving Trump Hotel Partner

 

No Russians! (with few exceptions)

VEB, a Russian state-run bank under scrutiny by U.S. investigators, financed a deal involving Donald Trump’s onetime partner in a Toronto hotel tower at a key moment for the project, according to people familiar with the transaction.

 

Alexander Shnaider, a Russian-Canadian developer who built the 65-story Trump International Hotel and Tower, put money into the project after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from a separate asset sale that involved the Russian bank, whose full name is Vnesheconombank.

 

Mr. Shnaider sold his company’s share in a Ukrainian steelmaker for about $850 million in 2010, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. According to two people with knowledge of the deal, the buyer, which hasn’t been identified publicly, was an entity acting for the Russian government. VEB initiated the purchase and provided the money, these people say.

 

U.S. investigators are looking into any ties between Russian financial institutions, Mr. Trump and anyone in his orbit, according to a person familiar with the probe. As part of the investigation, they’re examining interactions between Mr. Trump, his associates and VEB, which is now subject to U.S. sanctions, said another person familiar with the matter. The Toronto deal adds a new element to the list of known connections between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Edited May 17, 2017 by StrangeSox