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well we just got one. those emails prove meeting with intent to collude for three top trump campaign members.
now that they have a smoking gun, they have a lot more power to uncover additional smoking guns. it doesn’t take much of a leap to be fairly certain that once they start pulling the loose thread the entire mess will come unraveled.
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BTW: there’s been substantial evidence (not absolute proof, but more than sufficient to justify intense investigation in normal circumstances) of that for a long time. It’s in the Steele dossier.
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Listen, I hate Trump’s guts, but isn’t this all getting a but McCarthyist? Talking to Russians is not a crime. We still need evidence of actual wrongdoing. I hope such evidence is found, but there’s no point pretending it has been found already.
Talking to Russians is totally a crime, if you’re doing it in the hopes of getting oppo research or other assistance in the ongoing presidential election. Like Don Jr. admitted of doing, and as his released e-mails make abundantly clear.
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From today’s Aftenposten (via Google translate):
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Ok so they’re lying. We knew that Trump is a lier. There was proof even during his campaign. No one thinks that’s a problem as he had lied so many times about every topic conceivable.
Problem is that there are no consequences. Lying about meeting people isn’t a crime (as far as I’m aware of). Why he met those Russians and what did they talk about that’s what needs to be demonstrated.
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It’s about time the real birther movement began. Is there any doubt he’s a Russian natural?
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I don’t suppose you know who Joseph McCarthy was?
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And after insisting there was no collusion, Fox News is now insisting that collusion is totally okay and besides, it’s all the Democrats’ fault.
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I am not sure what sort of evidence you expect. There have been a number of face-to-face contacts over a number of years, which is no crime in itself. We do not have a transcript of these meetings, and probably no transcript exists. Sadly, Putin is smart even if Trump is not, so we aren’t going to find a receipt for a billion roubles for scuppering NATO lying in the back of the sock drawer.
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I can’t say I’m disappointed in Trump, any more than I would be disappointed in a wild animal that attacked a camper holding a stick of beef jerky. He and his family are who they have always been: craven, self-serving, amoral, clueless, insulated.
I’m disappointed in the Americans who elected him, and the Republican party that’s been promoting ignorance and fear for a generation or longer. This is the most perfect example of “the chickens coming home to roost” we could ever have predicted for the GOP, the party that always claimed the moral high ground has no morals at all.
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For reference, the only two Western banks that were still willing to loan this grifter money at that point were Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank (which had and has its own problems). I don’t know about the Russian mob, but it’s bad enough that the 2016 GOP nominee current POTUS was taking loans from Russian oligarchs (via the Cyprus laundries) and from Russian bankers, all of whom can only continue to do business at the sufferance of an autocrat who’d like to undermine confidence in Western democratic institutions.
If they’re going to get the regime on anything, it will be the cover-up and not the crime. Given the now constant exposure of lies about the connections of the family and its advisors to Russia it won’t be hard for Mueller to make a case, especially if one of the subjects of the investigation can be flipped (by dispelling the subject’s fear of polonium tea or, more likely, by taking advantage of his – Hi Junior! --stupidity).
Even then, though, the GOP poltroons and opportunists in Congress would have to take action. Putin could decide to come out and yell “pwned, suckers!” to-morrow and Ryan and McConnell would still do their best to keep Il Douche in the White House.
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This is standard operating procedure when Fox reports on Republican wrongdoing
1- It didn’t happen.
2- It might have happened, but if it did it’s not a big deal.
3- It might be a big deal, but if it is then Hillary/Obama did it too/worse/first.
4- Change the subject.
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Of course Drumpf and his people were talking to the Russians back then. The traitor-in-chief went bankrupt so many times, no American bank would loan him money anymore. He went to Russia to get money from the Russian mob. What do you think happened in Putin’s office when he learned that his mob had their hooks into a yuge businessman in the US, one who had all kinds of connections and influence here? Drumpf was extorted. The Russian maf told him do what we want or we pull out the money that keeps you alive and your entire “empire” collapses, and we expose you to the world as being a tool of ours. And of course the Russian government worked their intel agents into that “deal”. It’s the only logical explanation that fits all the known facts and explains why the traitor-in-chief has been so eager to be so soft and friendly to Putin. THE TRAITOR WHO CURRENTLY ILLEGALLY OCCUPIES THE WHITE HOUSE HAS BEEN A RUSSIAN AGENT SINCE AT LEAST 2015. DRUMPF IS WILLINGLY TAKING ORDERS FROM PUTIN OUT OF FEAR OF BEING EXPOSED AS A RUSSIAN AGENT. WE HAVE A “PRESIDENT” WHO IS A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF A FOREIGN DICTATOR AND HE IS PUTTING MANIFESTLY UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF CRITICAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES BECAUSE HE IS OBEYING ORDERS TO CRIPPLE THIS COUNTRY FOR RUSSIA’S BENEFIT. DRUMPF IS A GOD DAMN TRAITOR IN LITERAL TRUTH AND HE DESERVES TO BE SHOT.
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That’s the point. Face to face contacts alone isn’t enough to do anything over. Look, I don’t trust any politician, but it has to be something more damaging than mere meetings.
Documentation of direct funds, knowledge/approval/suggestion they should commit illegal activities would be good (that one sorta happened on the campaign trail). Possession of the data the Russians stole but didn’t release, showing intimacy with the hackers. You know, something that holds water in a legal sense.
There have been so many political witch hunts in my life time that amount to NOTHING, basically, that I think my skepticism is warranted. Hell even sexual misconduct of Clinton resulted in a slap on the wrist, but not actually removed him. But unlike some of the others that amounted to circumstantial evidence, or just enough to keep a conspiracy theory alive, I’d like enough where in 4 years we can point to when he was prosecuted, not just a wink and a nudge that he was at least partly a Russian puppet.
Unfortunately, without actual proof, we’re going on a collective hunch here.
Trump and his cronies have a habit of screaming everything in all-caps hysterical rants and it’s hard to take the Alex Joneses and Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world seriously because of it.
The manly shirt-ripping ultra-heterosexual sweaty men in charge like to see their enemies as fey nerds. I’d love it if wimpy dorks could produce the evidence and data to resolve all of this without joining them in screaming matches.
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