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GOP Operative Sought Clinton Emails From Hackers, Implied a Connection to Flynn

R

rucury

Banned
I'm not seeing this pop up elsewhere... May not be related, but I feel like people in general are becoming more apathetic towards this administration. Wonder if marches would draw the crowds they did near the swearing-in.
 
K

kirblar

Member
rucury said:
I'm not seeing this pop up elsewhere... May not be related, but I feel like people in general are becoming more apathetic towards this administration. Wonder if marches would draw the crowds they did near the swearing-in.
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It's because it's a WSJ article based on privately sourced information. Other outlets have to do dilligence before running w/ it. It's also second-hand connected to Trump (via Flynn) so it's not as urgent a story.
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
I like how Trump tweeted out that thing about Hillary colluding with the DNC a few days too early to deflect from this story. Like he knew it was coming but didn't know when. Makes sense that he had to stir the pot again with the Morning Joe bullshit. Of course, that's all assuming that there's any rhyme or reason behind Trump's tweets at all.

God this timeline is so fucking shit, all you can do is laugh.
 
M

Mugsy

Member
Tommy DJ said:
Metal Gear Solid 4, right down to the pre-recorded message loaded on the email server.

But seriously, this would probably be the most politically powerful email server in the world if it did happen.
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Seriously, this could be a simple piece of server hardware that has destroyed multiple presidencies.
 
DietRob

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Mighty Chin said:
My goodness if Hillary's email server ends up taking down Trump.
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OK, I take it back I'm not tired of talking about 'Her damn emails'

This feels like a smoking gun but it still doesn't tie Dumbass Donald into it does it?
 
C

cameron

Member
rfield84 said:
Here ya go. USA article discussing a *cough* interesting *cough* talking point raised by Fox News Sunday host Brit Hume saying that collusion " inappropriate.” but, “it’s not a crime.” This talking point was made over last weekend, I think. Other conservatives have been taking this tone as well. Other examples are noted as well.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...undits-colluding-russia-isnt-crime/103204036/
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skullmuffins said:
they've been building up to this angle for the past month or so

https://www.mediamatters.org/resear...no-big-deal-if-trump-colluded-russians/217034

http://www.businessinsider.com/collusion-russia-trump-crime-2017-6

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...undits-colluding-russia-isnt-crime/103204036/

the first instance of this argument they reference was on May 10 from Geraldo which is coincidentally (or not...) like a week after the WSJ interviewed the source for this article.
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The bizarre shift is a somewhat noteworthy bit. It was mentioned by Benjamin Wittes‏ ("Interesting preemptive defense of collusion happening.") and several others. WSJ was working on this story for a while, and as per procedure, before publishing they asked the WH and people who worked on the Trump campaign to comment. Trump & Co knew in advance this story was going to drop.
 
R

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
RPGCrazied said:
CNN knows. Jake Tapper just tweeted the story. Should be coming soon I'd think.
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These stories usually seem to get picked up on air by Anderson Cooper. I assume his show is their true prime time.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Lemonz said:
giphy.gif
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I can't wait until Trump punches a baby.
 
B

Brashnir

Member
BobTheFork said:
Why the fuck would anyone born after Nixon left office know how this works?

Because they spent 90 minutes studying it in a public school 15 years ago?
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I mean, the FIFA investigation was in these people's lifetimes, and that took ten years to come to the point of a raid on FIFA HQ.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Mighty Chin said:
My goodness if Hillary's email server ends up taking down Trump.
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I will laugh my goddamn ass off for days if her email server is what does him in.

Random Human said:
These stories usually seem to get picked up on air by Anderson Cooper. I assume his show is their true prime time.
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Yea, they usually get confirmation by then.

Brashnir said:
I mean, the FIFA investigation was in these people's lifetimes, and that took ten years to come to the point of a raid on FIFA HQ.
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Most Americans didn't know shit about FIFA. For them it just happened one day.
 
Subpar Spatula

Subpar Spatula

Banned
Yeah, nothing's gonna happen.

The defense is gonna be: everyone was doing it.

Americans will agree.

Trump goes on.

Just wait out the next 3 and a half years and hope he's not voted in again.
 
K

ken_matthews

Member
ICO_SotC said:
Influential conservative opinion writer David Brooks also just wrote a ridiculous op-ed that basically said it wasn't collusion, it just patriotic Americans who were trying to improve relations with Russia.

Actual quote:


He also serves up some "Even Lincoln could be charged with obstruction under these laws!"

There definitely has been a sudden and noticeable shift from "No collusion", to "It depends how you define collusion." in the right wing media.
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Even though I don't agree with a lot of his economic sensibilities, I actually think Brooks is one of the few reasonable people on the right (he also wrote a really good book called the Social Animal). I think you are unfairly characterizing his op-ed. From the article:

David Brooks said:
I was the op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal at the peak of the Whitewater scandal. We ran a series of investigative pieces “raising serious questions” (as we say in the scandal business) about the nefarious things the Clintons were thought to have done back in Arkansas.

Now I confess I couldn’t follow all the actual allegations made in those essays. They were six jungles deep in the weeds. But I do remember the intense atmosphere that the scandal created. A series of bombshell revelations came out in the media, which seemed monumental at the time. A special prosecutor was appointed and indictments were expected. Speculation became the national sport.

In retrospect Whitewater seems overblown.
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I’m not saying there shouldn’t be an investigation into potential Russia-Trump links. Russia’s attack on American democracy was truly heinous, and if the Trump people were involved, that would be treason. I’m saying first, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and assume that this link exists.
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There’s just something worrisome every time we find ourselves replacing politics of democracy with the politics of scandal. In democracy, the issues count, and you try to win by persuasion. You recognize that your opponents are legitimate, that they will always be there and that some form of compromise is inevitable.

In the politics of scandal, at least since Watergate, you don’t have to engage in persuasion or even talk about issues. Political victories are won when you destroy your political opponents by catching them in some wrongdoing. You get seduced by the delightful possibility that your opponent will be eliminated. Politics is simply about moral superiority and personal destruction.
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Donald Trump rose peddling the politics of scandal — oblivious to policy, spreading insane allegations about birth certificates and other things — so maybe it’s just that he gets swallowed by it. But frankly, on my list of reasons Trump is unfit for the presidency, the Russia-collusion story ranks number 971, well below, for example, the perfectly legal ways he kowtows to thugs and undermines the norms of democratic behavior.
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You can agree or disagree with him (I would rank collusion with Russia at #2), but he is certainly not trying to excuse Trump. He is reflecting on his past experiences and commentating about our current political climate. I think you were being a little unfair by taking those quotes out of context.
 
S

Steel

Banned
ICO_SotC said:
Influential conservative opinion writer David Brooks also just wrote a ridiculous op-ed that basically said it wasn't collusion, it just patriotic Americans who were trying to improve relations with Russia.

Actual quote:


He also serves up some "Even Lincoln could be charged with obstruction under these laws!"

There definitely has been a sudden and noticeable shift from "No collusion", to "It depends how you define collusion." in the right wing media.
Click to expand...

Considering all the laws that Lincoln broke(for the greater good mind), I don't think he's a very good example of a lawful president.
 
U

ugaboga232

Member
ken_matthews said:
Even though I don't agree with a lot of his economic sensibilities, I actually think Brooks is one of the few reasonable people on the right (he also wrote a really good book called the Social Animal). I think you are unfairly characterizing his op-ed. From the article:









You can agree or disagree with him (I would rank collusion with Russia at #2), but he is certainly not trying to excuse Trump. He is reflecting on his past experiences and commentating about our current political climate. I think you were being a little unfair by taking those quotes out of context.
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The cynical would say hes trying to cover for all the Trump-allied GOP people who could be caught in the crossfire or are actually involved in the collusion.
 
K

KernelPanic

Member
I wonder what would happen if HRC secretly colluded with Canada to rig the election in order to put in single payer healthcare. I'd love to read conservative media from that timeline.
 
I

ICO_SotC

Member
ken_matthews said:
You can agree or disagree with him (I would rank collusion with Russia at #2), but he is certainly not trying to excuse Trump. He is reflecting on his past experiences and commentating about our current political climate.
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I've been following Brooks for years and he only pulls this above- it- all lamenting the "climate of scandal" stuff when he thinks it will hurt conservatives. He would not be doing this for Obama, Clinton, etc...

And he clearly is trying to excuse Trump, imo.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
ken_matthews said:
Even though I don't agree with a lot of his economic sensibilities, I actually think Brooks is one of the few reasonable people on the right (he also wrote a really good book called the Social Animal). I think you are unfairly characterizing his op-ed. From the article:









You can agree or disagree with him (I would rank collusion with Russia at #2), but he is certainly not trying to excuse Trump. He is reflecting on his past experiences and commentating about our current political climate. I think you were being a little unfair by taking those quotes out of context.
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David Brooks is doing what he always does, depicting the political lay of the land in such a way that he has the moral high ground.
 
K

ken_matthews

Member
ugaboga232 said:
The cynical would say hes trying to cover for all the Trump-allied GOP people who could be caught in the crossfire or are actually involved in the collusion.
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Yeah, but I watch a lot of PBS news hour where he does a bi-weekly segment with Mark Shields; the guy is not a right-wing political operative. He has an economic perspective that I disagree with, but he is fairly sensible and comes across as genuine. I could be wrong though...
 
K

ken_matthews

Member
ICO_SotC said:
I've been following Brooks for years and he only pulls this above- it- all lamenting the "climate of scandal" stuff when he thinks it will hurt conservatives. He would not be doing this for Obama, Clinton, etc...

And he clearly is trying to excuse Trump, imo.
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Maybe, I actually don't read many of his op-eds, but he seems fairly sensible on PBS.

EDIT: just want to add, if you watch Brooks and Shields (liberal) on PBS, there is almost zero difference between them on Trump. Brooks openly talks about how he believes Trump is unfit for the office. I really do not think he is trying to excuse Trump for anything.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
Chaos2Frozen said:
Wait, so collusion is definitely illegal right?

Nobody changed the rules when I wasn't looking right?
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Well, yes and no. It's up to Congress to determine whether Trump is guilty of collusion, obstruction, or anything else. No matter what the conclusion of the investigation is.
 
Subpar Spatula

Subpar Spatula

Banned
Nafai1123 said:
Thankfully your everyday American is not in charge of the investigation.
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Your dealing with a group who literally doesn't care that the world is dying from human action. They don't care that the President is a huge asshole to allies and his own countrymen. He has shown to be incredibly incompetent. They don't even care if healthcare disappears. I'm not talking about the average American but the actual people who can impeach him.

Let it sink in for a bit of what needs to occur for them to actually care.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
Subpar Spatula said:
Your dealing with a group who literally doesn't care that the world is dying from human action. They don't care that the President is a huge asshole to allies and his own countrymen. He has shown to be incredibly incompetent. They don't even care if healthcare disappears. I'm not talking about the average American but the actual people who can impeach him.

Let it sink in for a bit of what needs to occur for them to actually care.
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Wow, Bob Mueller doesn't care about healthcare? What a dick.
 
S

Steel

Banned
Frustrated_me said:
Explains the tweets from this morning by Trump, he's trying to shift the narrative away from this.
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Nah, the deflection was probably the "But Hillary and the DNC colluded!" Tweet from days earlier. Probably expected the story to drop earlier as Wittes knew about it since last week. As for how they'd know about it, the WSJ probably contacted them for a response, which isn't uncommon.
 
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