Trump 17: James Comey and the Goblin of "You're Fired"

[Destiny]

Previously, Cheeto fired the FBI director that got him elected, but was also investigating him for the Russian connection, in the worst possible way. I call shenanigans and interference!

Continued from here:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hmmmm: "Comey sought more money for Russia probe days before he was fired by President Trump, officials say"

Quote

Last week, then-FBI Director James B. Comey requested more money and resources from the Justice Department for his bureau’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussion.

Comey, who was fired by President Trump on Tuesday, made the request in a meeting last week with Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and Senate Intelligence Committee members were briefed on the request on Monday.

...

It's unclear where the FBI investigation stands. Comey acknowledged publicly in March that the FBI was looking into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he said the investigation had begun in late July. Comey said that for a counterintelligence probe, “that’s a fairly short period of time.”

Last summer, the FBI obtained a secret court order to monitor the communications of Carter Page, who was an early adviser to the Trump campaign, as part of its investigation. Page has not been accused of any crimes, and it is unclear whether the Justice Department will eventually seek charges against him or others in connection with Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Law enforcement officials are also examining contacts between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian officials.

 

More than a little suspicious...

[fraurosena]

@Destiny, @GreyhoundFan, great thread title, as usual!

There's a good op-ed about it in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/10/james-comey-trump-fired-finish-work-putin-started?CMP=share_btn_tw

(for some reason I can't connect the link to sentence)

Quote

A brazen attack on the rule of law. There is no other way to describe Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey. Recalling the dismissal of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Democratic senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania rightly called the act “Nixonian”. But it is more than that. 

Russia’s criminal interference in our presidential election represents one of the great scandals in our history. Whether there was actual collusion between the Russians and members of Trump’s election team is, at present, impossible to say. 

We do know that the FBI had sufficient concerns to launch a probe. We know that the man named by then president-elect Trump to serve as his national security adviser , Michael Flynn, apparently sought to assure the Russians that they would suffer no adverse consequences as a result of their attack on our democracy.

Whether Flynn acted on his own renegade initiative or at the behest of Trump is just one of the many questions that remain unanswered. And these are the questions that Trump now hopes will never be answered. 

The reasons given for Comey’s dismissal fail the straight-face test. If we are to accept the administration’s stated rationale, summarized in a fatuous memo by the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, the FBI’s ongoing probe played no role in the firing. No, Comey had to go because of the “substantial damage” that FBI’s “reputation and credibility have suffered” as a result of Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. 

The play is too clever by a half. Many Democrats continue to revile Comey for reopening the email probe in the waning days of the election. But the suggestion that Trump has belatedly come to share the concerns that have vexed Democrats is transparent in its cynicism.

Memo aside, this is nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to abort an ongoing investigation. Needless to say, such behavior does not suggest innocence. But that is hardly the point. What is most shocking is that by attacking an independent investigation into executive malfeasance, Trump promises to complete the task that the Russians started. 

Even if innocent of collusion, Trump has done something almost as bad – he has undermined investigative independence, a mainstay of rule-based governance. The Russians need no longer expend their energies trying to subvert the integrity of our political system. Now they have our president to do that job. 

Trump has made no secret of his admiration of the Erdoğans and Dutertes of the world, strong-arm leaders who make a mockery of constitutional governance.

Even as Russia-US relations have taken a nosedive in recent weeks, Trump has never so much as breathed a word of criticism of Vladimir Putin, the very man who must be viewing the chaos he has unleashed upon the American political landscape with cold, expressionless delight.

[GreyhoundFan]

And the fun continues: "Trump meets Russian foreign minister as Moscow’s alleged election interference is back in spotlight"

Quote

President Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met at the White House Wednesday morning, on a day when Russia's alleged interference in the presidential election had reentered the spotlight.

The White House session came after Lavrov met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the State Department’s Treaty Room, where the foreign minister showed mock surprise when asked if Tuesday's firing of FBI Director James B. Comey cast a shadow over his visit.

“Was he fired?” he said, arching his eyebrows. “You're kidding! You're kidding!”

Lavrov threw his head back in a dismissive gesture and walked away, shaking his head.

In Moscow, a spokesman for the Kremlin said Trump's firing of Comey will have no effect on bilateral relations between the two countries.

"That’s the United States' internal affair,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin. "That’s the U.S. president’s independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia."

In Washington, Tillerson made no comment on the Comey firing or on the substantive issues he would discuss with Lavrov. This is their third meeting. The two appear to have forged a working relationship, with fairly frequent phone calls.

Tillerson, who met with Lavrov last month in Moscow in a bid to smooth out differences that have brought U.S.-Russia relations to a post-Cold War low, said he wanted to express “my appreciation for his making the trip to Washington so we can continue our dialogue and exchange of views that began in Moscow with the dialogue he hosted on a very broad range of topics.”

...

After the White House meeting, Tillerson and Lavrov are expected to depart for Alaska to attend a meeting of the Arctic Council, which the United States has chaired for the past two years.

They originally were scheduled to meet in Fairbanks, but the plans were changed at the last minute so Lavrov could come to Washington. .

 

[47of74]

2 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

And the fun continues: "Trump meets Russian foreign minister as Moscow’s alleged election interference is back in spotlight"

 

Insert crude, off color remarks about Sarah Palin being able to see Russians from her house now here.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is mirroring Nixon’s final days"

Quote

For more than 40 years, virtually every major scandal in American politics has been likened to Watergate. But no presidential deed — not Ronald Reagan’s trading of arms for hostages in Iran-contra, not Bill Clinton’s cover-up of his affair with a young White House aide in the Monica Lewinsky affair — ever rivaled any of Richard Nixon’s serial abuses of executive power in their gravity.

Until now.

President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey — who was overseeing the probe of the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the 2016 election — was technically legal, since the president acted within his official authority. But it plainly violates the democratic norms that have long governed the use of presidential power, and bears Nixonian overtones. With Trump mirroring Nixon’s brazen high-handedness, the most pressing question is whether Republicans in Congress will muster the same courage and integrity Republicans did after Watergate.

Comey’s unceremonious firing brings to mind the Saturday Night Massacre of October 1973, when Nixon ordered the sacking of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor who was pursuing Watergate, and who was demanding to hear the secret White House recordings that might contain evidence of Nixon’s role in the scandal. On that fateful night, the top two Justice Department officials, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, resigned rather than carry out Nixon’s orders. Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox, and days later abolished the special prosecutor’s office altogether.

Nixon’s actions then were also technically legal. But as everyone could see, they constituted a blatant attempt to snuff out an investigation that was closing in on him. In that sense, the parallels with Trump’s firing of Comey seem striking.

In both instances, the sitting president was suspected of having tampered with the machinery of our democratic presidential elections. In Watergate, many feared that Nixon had ordered or covered up his aides’ burglary of the opposing party’s headquarters; today, circumstantial evidence is mounting that Trump or his aides may have colluded with Russia to hack email accounts to sway public opinion against his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

In both instances, too, post-election investigations had amassed strong evidence of serious wrongdoing. And in both instances, it was vital to guarantee that the president not be permitted to unilaterally end an inquiry into his own misdeeds.

In the parlous days of 1973, it fell to Congress to ensure that the system worked. Likewise, in the days ahead, Congress again will decide whether our nation’s democratic norms are upheld or whether, under Trump, America takes a step toward the model of Russia, Turkey or Venezuela — countries where some trappings of democracy still remain but the rule of law and the will of the voters have come to mean little.

Nixon’s rash decision to fire Cox backfired, in the first place, because the press and the public spoke out, pressuring their representatives to act. On NBC, a news anchor declared, “The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history.” The Republican-leaning Time magazine ran its first-ever editorial, urging the president to step down.

Record numbers of telegrams swamped Congress. Even GOP congressmen reported mail running 9 to 1 in favor of impeachment. House Democratic leaders quickly agreed to have the Judiciary Committee open an inquiry to see if Nixon had committed impeachable acts. Over the following days, House members introduced 44 Watergate-related bills, half of which called for impeachment proceedings or investigations and 12 of which demanded a new special prosecutor.

As Watergate historian Stanley Kutler wrote, “The time had come to watch congressmen’s feet, not their mouths.” Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, making it easier to assign the Judiciary Committee subpoena powers, as it quickly did. But just as notably, a good many Republicans put country over party.

...

The question now is whether congressional Republicans will again rise to the occasion. Many congressmen and senators loudly criticized Trump during the campaign, but since he took office few have done much to stand in his way. Yet the time for evasions is over. Of all the authoritarian tendencies and bullying behaviors Trump displayed in 2016, the most disturbing was always his affinity for Vladimir Putin and his apparent unconcern with — or active encouragement of — Russian interference in our democracy. Comey’s firing may well have ended any prospect of the truth emerging about Trump’s relationship with the Russian autocrat. But if some prospect remains, it’s the Republicans who must actively choose to keep it alive.

Will Republicans in Congress allow the intelligence committees to chase down, unfettered, the full story of the contacts between Russian officials and Trump aides including Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Carter Page and Paul Manafort? Will senators acquiesce in letting Trump name a loyalist to run the FBI, someone who will pull the plug on its investigation — or will they insist on a genuinely independent replacement for Comey? Will they authorize subpoena powers to the key committees and pledge themselves to the vigorous pursuit of the truth? The Tuesday Night Massacre is, surely, a moment of truth.

Sadly, under Bitch McTurtle and Lyan, I can't see congressional DOHers actually stepping up.

[Howl]

8 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Insert crude, off color remarks about Sarah Palin being able to see Russians from her house now here.

Bingo! 

[fraurosena]

Well this is no surprise.

McConnell Rejects Calls for an Independent Russia Investigation

Quote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday defended President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey and rejected bipartisan calls for an independent investigation into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the 2016 campaign. In the wake of Comey's firing, more than 100 members of Congress have called for a special prosecutor or an independent commission—similar to the 9/11 commission—to investigate the Russia scandal.

According to McConnell, an independent probe would undermine the investigation into Russian interference in the election currently being conducted by the GOP-led Senate intelligence committee. "Today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done," McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor. 

"Partisan calls should not delay the considerable work of [Senate intelligence committee] chairman [Richard] Burr and vice chairman [Mark] Warner," McConnell added. "Too much is at stake."

Warner, a Democrat, certainly agrees that much is at stake—he's called the intelligence committee probe "the most important thing I've ever done." But Warner said Tuesday that Trump's firing of Comey "demands the appointment of a Special Counsel."

.@POTUS firing #FBIDirector Comey in the middle of his investigation into the Trump campaign demands the appointment of a Special Counsel.

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) May 10, 2017

Burr, a Republican, also raised concerns about Trump's actions, saying Tuesday that he's "troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey's termination" and that the firing "further confuses an already difficult investigation by the Committee." Still, he stopped short of calling for an independent investigation.

My statement on the dismissal of FBI Director Comey https://t.co/ovoe34xajZpic.twitter.com/1hB0QveczE

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) May 9, 2017

His dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the Committee.

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) May 9, 2017

Too much is at stake indeed! Afraid for your job, and that of your supreme presidunce?

[GreyhoundFan]

@fraurosena -- color me unsurprised. Bitch isn't going to do a damned thing.

 

A good opinion piece: "In the wake of Trump’s brazen power play, it’s time to go nuclear"

Quote

President Trump’s Tuesday Night Massacre — his firing of FBI director James Comey — was such a brazen power play in the context of the FBI’s ongoing Russia probe that even some Republicans are troubled by it. While many Democrats are now calling for a special prosecutor to handle the Russia affair, a handful of Republican senators are also suggesting the timing of the firing was suspect; that the firing raises questions about whether further political interference will compromise the FBI’s investigation; or that an independent investigative mechanism must now take over.

These questions about the future integrity of the Russia probe are all serious and legitimate. But if those Republicans are truly as alarmed as their rhetoric suggests, there are concrete things they can do in the Senate right now that could help compel either a full accounting of the Comey firing, or an independent Russia probe, or both. And Democrats, too, can ratchet up the tactics in a big way to try to force GOP leaders to relent on both of these fronts.

Let’s first dispense with two absurd arguments about this mess. The White House says Trump acted quickly on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, whose explanatory letter faulted Comey for, among other things, holding a news conference to criticize Hillary Clinton while recommending against charges. But the Wall Street Journal reports that the White House was furious with Comey because he refused to tamp down talk of possible collusion between Russian election meddling and the Trump campaign, which the FBI is investigating. What’s more, Trump himself seized on Comey’s July criticism of Clinton to argue she was unfit to be president. Now that criticism is a problem? Yeah, right.

Trump also claims Democrats have no business attacking him for firing Comey, since they protested Comey’s conduct. But Democrats can still be furious with Comey’s handling of the newly discovered Clinton emails, while also pointing out that Trump’s firing of Comey is highly suspect and demands a special prosecutor.

Regardless, multiple GOP senators — such as John McCain, Bob Corker, Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake and Richard Burr — are also troubled by that firing. But they can do something more about this if they wish to. The FBI’s investigation will now be led by Rosenstein. But Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey persuasively argue that the firing of Comey, amid an active investigation of his own campaign, “violates profoundly important norms of an independent, non-political FBI” and that Rosenstein, having already participated in this “tawdry episode,” can’t “credibly lead this investigation any longer,” necessitating an independent prosecutor.

Wittes and Hennessey add, however, that senators and members of Congress “have tools at their disposal” that could help compel the appointment of an independent prosecutor. I contacted Wittes, a legal observer at the Brookings Institution who runs the Lawfare blog, to ask what these might be.

Here’s what senators can actually do

Wittes suggested several ideas to me. He noted that, with all Democrats and a handful of Republicans upset about the Comey firing, there are enough senators “to create a blocking majority for the next FBI director,” who must be confirmed. This blocking majority, Wittes said, could theoretically condition its support for nominees to that post, insisting that the Justice Department produce a fuller accounting of the recommendation into the Comey firing or that the department appoint a special prosecutor on the Russia probe.

Alternatively, Wittes noted, individual senators — in either party, but especially in the majority — can employ other tactics to force the issue. They could try to oppose funding for various other Justice Department priorities or block other nominations to the department. “I would not give that cooperation until the Justice Department names a special prosecutor,” Wittes said.

Finally, Democrats — with or without a handful of Republican allies, but preferably with them — can basically try to grind the Senate to a halt, by refusing cooperation on any legislation or nominations or anything, until GOP leaders and/or the White House agree to some form of independent investigation. “Every time they’re asked to cooperate on something, this needs to be front and center,” Wittes says. “They needs to be focused like a laser beam on that every time they’re asked to give unanimous consent.”

Let’s be clear on one point: This isn’t simply about Trump. It’s also about our democracy. It isn’t just that the grounds for public confidence in the Russia probes are dwindling, whether it’s the FBI’s investigation or the ones being overseen by congressional Republicans, though that withering confidence does demand an independent probe. It’s also that we are trying to establish not just whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but also the full story of what Russia did to interfere in the workings of our election, with or without the Trump campaign’s help. The intelligence community has explicitly concluded that Russia will try to do this again in future elections, so establishing what happened is key to averting a repeat of it. If the White House — or GOP congressional leaders — won’t investigate this seriously, then those in both parties who actually want a real probe need to step up.

...

I hope enough DOHers will step up to pressure Bitch and Lyan into action, though I'm not sanguine about that happening.

[Destiny]

28 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

@Destiny great thread title, as usual!

It was going to be Death Eaters First in honour of the healthcare vote, but I have no doubt that I will be using that one in future so this one made better sense for now. 

I still can't believe that this is a thing that is happening and that McDonnell and Ryan aren't even pretending that this doesn't look fucking awful at best and like flat out antidemocratic Nixonesque corruption at worst.

[formergothardite]

21 minutes ago, Destiny said:

McDonnell and Ryan aren't even pretending that this doesn't look fucking awful at best and like flat out antidemocratic Nixonesque corruption at worst.

I sure hope there are good reporters digging into these two because with the way they are acting there has to be a hell of a lot of skeletons in their closets. No decent humans would react the way they react. Something is really fucking off with these two. 

At this point it doesn't matter if nothing else gets done, Democrats and the few honest Republicans need to focus on this and force the issue. We are at a turning point in American history and if we aren't careful we are going to start down a path that we can't get off of. Right now this is still all fixable and we can recover, but if Trump is allowed to cover up the investigation then America as we know it is gone. 

[apple1]

Lying liars who lie. (applied to any and all politicians who fit this description, but Trump is chief and first)

One of my adult daughters (who knows me well) sent me a meme in a message that says:

"If a mom says she just wants her kids' love for Mother's Day, she lying.

She want Trump IMPEACHED."

[JMarie]

17 minutes ago, apple1 said:

Lying liars who lie. (applied to any and all politicians who fit this description, but Trump is chief and first)

One of my adult daughters (who knows me well) sent me a meme in a message that says:

"If a mom says she just wants her kids' love for Mother's Day, she lying.

She want Trump IMPEACHED."

What a fantastic Mother's Day gift!

[GreyhoundFan]

40 minutes ago, Destiny said:

It was going to be Death Eaters First in honour of the healthcare vote, but I have no doubt that I will be using that one in future so this one made better sense for now. 

I still can't believe that this is a thing that is happening and that McDonnell and Ryan aren't even pretending that this doesn't look fucking awful at best and like flat out antidemocratic Nixonesque corruption at worst.

In my mind, I keep going back to how Bitch and Lyan would have had massive conniption fits if the shoe was on the other foot and Hillary had won the EC in November and then done something like this. They would have been crying and screaming on the news 24/7 and there would have been 20 or more "investigations" by congress. Instead, they just whistle and act like nothing is wrong.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Jeffrey Toobin went ballistic about Trump and Comey. It was great TV."

Quote

...

On Fox News, a banner falsely announced “James Comey Resigns.”

On MSNBC, even the quick-on-his-feet Chuck Todd looked flummoxed at first: “All I can say is ‘wow.’ ”

But over on CNN, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin soon was firing on all cylinders. Wolf Blitzer broke the news and intoned that this was “an extraordinary moment in American history.”

Toobin shot back: “You bet it is, Wolf, and it is a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the United States.”

Before we could pick our jaws up off the floor, he barreled forward: “This is the kind of things that goes on in non-democracies. That when there is an investigation that reaches near the president of the United States or the leader of a non-democracy, they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation.”

Without hesi­ta­tion or any need for a Google search, Toobin reached back for historical context: He hadn’t seen such a thing since 1973 when President Nixon fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. That, he noted, was a key factor leading to Nixon’s resignation.

Toobin was critical, knowledgeable and sure-footed. For once, CNN’s pundit-heavy staff was paying off instead of embarrassing itself.

Toobin’s passion inspired some in the meta-commentariat to poke a little fun. “Jeff Toobin goes falsetto,” tweeted Politico’s Jack Shafer.
And the conservative NewsBusters site wagged its reproving finger: “His attitude and demeanor were over the top,” tut-tutted Nicholas Fondacaro in a piece titled, “CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin Loses His Mind Over Comey Being Fired.”

As the evening wore on, TV news people began to settle into it. Fox’s Bret Baier delivered a fair-minded 6:30 report — solid except for his unintentionally comical explanation of the visual awaiting Senator Charles Schumer’s arrival: “You see an empty podium and whenever you see that, we have nothing to show you.”
CBS’s Scott Pelley twice referred to Comey as someone with a reputation for integrity. NBC’s Lester Holt leaned heavily — and wisely — on Justice correspondent Pete Williams’s expertise.

And back on cable, CNN soon brought in Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway — perhaps the most annoying dissembler of our time — to cast precisely zero new light as she defended the boss’s decision.

Before long, Anderson Cooper and a panel of eight were doing the cable news thing: Talking and talking, turning the subject this way and that like a newly dug-up fossil, without adding much new information or insight.

That’s what made Toobin’s commentary, by contrast, so compelling. As a former federal prosecutor, an author, and a legal writer for the New Yorker magazine, he has significant expertise and actual knowledge.

And as a regular analyst for CNN, Toobin knows how to talk for TV.

In memorable phrases: “Transparently bogus,” was how he reacted to a claim by some Republican senators that the FBI’s Russia investigation would simply proceed apace without any real problem.

In short, direct sentences, like this one on Comey: “He was fired because he was investigating the White House.”

And in characterizations that pulled no punches: He called Trump’s announcement a “ridiculous letter,” and then referred to a “crazy paragraph” in which the president thanked Comey for assuring him, on three separate occasions, that he was not under investigation.

Well, maybe some of it was a little over the top. But at a surreal moment when much of live TV was stuttering and stumbling, Toobin’s voice was both authoritative and riveting.

...

Videos are linked in the article. They're quite good. I don't always agree with Toobin, but he does know his stuff.

[fraurosena]

The tangerine toddler's tantrum tweets today are... something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, you may be wondering why I've added all his hemorraging hystrionics. The answer is simple. He's being destroyed in the comments. I heartily recommend reading them!

This was one of my favorites:

 

[onekidanddone]

Been hyperventilating with anxiety over this.  Watching the sycophants standing in line to lick Agent's boots is freaking me out.  Trump's crazy tweets. He is more unhinged now than ever.  I feel like the world is crashing down around us.  I feel like I'm screaming into a jet engine 

My thin hope is that the ReTHUGlicans start turning against each other.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Amid questions about Russia-Trump ties, protesters rally in front of the White House"

Quote

Hundreds of workers in Washington took an extended lunch break for a last-minute protest in front of the White House on Wednesday, a day after President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey.

They carried signs calling for the government to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate allegations of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.

“We see you,” they chanted. At one point, they chanted the name of Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, calling her an “American hero.”

“Ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” was a common refrain.

Martina Leinz, 57, an administrator at Johns Hopkins University’s D.C. campus, said she attended the protest with colleagues during their lunch break.

“I am here because there has never been a point in history when our democracy has been more severely threatened than it is now,” she said. “I think it’s incumbent upon the Republicans in Congress to stand up and fight back to this travesty.”

A coalition of more than a dozen liberal organizations organized the demonstration, calling for a “full and independent investigation into any potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.”

Jo Comerford, campaign director for MoveOn.org, one of the groups behind Wednesday’s protest, said in a statement that Trump’s firing of Comey has created a “constitutional crisis.”

“Donald Trump just fired the one man in America who was leading the most thorough and long-lasting investigation of Donald Trump,” she wrote. “There now is no question that we need an independent commission established immediately to ensure that there is a fair, non-partisan and independent investigation into Trump, his administration and his associates.”

Another protest is planned for June 3 near the White House. And like many protests in the Trump era, the March for Truth started on Twitter.

Jordan Uhl, a liberal D.C. resident who is active on Twitter, said he noticed social media users asking for a protest urging the federal government to conduct an “urgent and impartial” investigation into Russia’s alleged ties to the Trump campaign and interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Uhl — along with Justin Hendrix and Andrea Chalupa, two other active social media users who had never met in person — decided to organize March for Truth demonstrations in Washington and New York on June 3 to, as the event’s tag­line states, restore “faith in American government.”

The protest was planned before Trump fired Comey on Tuesday. Comey was leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of Trump may have coordinated with Russia during the election.

Uhl said the June protests initially were a response, in part, to reports that the congressional investigations into Russia were disorganized and understaffed. Now, he said, the demonstrations are more dire and will also call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to lead an independent Russia investigation.

...

 

[onekidanddone]

@GreyhoundFan top notch title. You win the inter webs today.

[47of74]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

The tangerine toddler's tantrum tweets today are... something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, you may be wondering why I've added all his hemorraging hystrionics. The answer is simple. He's being destroyed in the comments. I heartily recommend reading them!

This was one of my favorites:

 

Keep talking Donald McFucknugget.  These tweets will make great prosecution evidence at your trial.

[onekidanddone]

I know Lyan is up for reelection in 2018, but what about the turtle?  Not that his replacement would be any better, but I'm just so sick of him.

[47of74]

16 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

I know Lyan is up for reelection in 2018, but what about the turtle?  Not that his replacement would be any better, but I'm just so sick of him.

Bitch would next be up for re-election in 2020. 

I hope the Democrats in Kentucky don't try to run what they consider to be a safe candidate against that SOB and get a hard, pipe hitting liberal to run against him instead.  We don't need any more safe or establishment candidates on our side.  We need aforementioned hard pipe hitting liberals, the kind who will plant their feet in peoples hindquarters and take names.

[fraurosena]

Trump says no collusion; GOP and Dem members say case isn't closed

Quote

Possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians remains a subject of investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees, contrary to assertions from President Donald Trump and White House officials that there's no evidence of collusion, multiple sources in both parties tell CNN.

"The committee is drawing no conclusions at this time, and will continue follow the facts where they lead," GOP Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN.

Such possible collusion is "the whole underlying premise of the investigation," a House Democratic source involved in the investigation said.

Another member of the Senate committee told CNN that possible collusion "is what we are investigating."

In his termination letter to FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, Trump wrote, "I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation." The President has long insisted the investigation will not discover any wrongdoing.

Earlier, following Monday's Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing on Russian interference in the US election, Trump tweeted, "The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?"

He also tweeted, "(former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion w/ Russia and Trump."

The tweet appeared to be referencing Clapper's answer to a question from Sen. Lindsay Graham, the chairman of the subcomittee, as to whether he had seen evidence of collusion. He answered that he had not.

Asked the same question by Graham, the former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, declined to answer, saying, "Senator, my answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information and so I can't answer that."

In testimony before the House intelligence committee in March, Comey testified that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between Trump associates and Russian officials and other Russians known to US intelligence as part of its broader, ongoing counter-intelligence investigation.

In addition to the FBI, four congressional panels continue to investigate Russia and Russian election interference, the Senate and House intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which held the hearings Monday, and the House oversight committee.

Intelligence officials tell CNN that Clapper, as a matter of policy, would not be involved in an investigation of possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia because US intelligence agencies are barred by law from probes involving US persons.

CNN has previously reported that the FBI obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant regarding Carter Page, a one-time policy adviser to then-candidate Trump, as part of its ongoing probe.

I don't know how much faith to put into these investigations, but somehow it's gratifying to know that there are no less than 5 (FIVE) ongoing investigations into collusion with the Russians.

[AuntK]

I'm not a violent person, but something about Sarah Huckabee Sanders makes me want to punch her in her smug face! And to begin the press briefing with the announcement that today is her daughter's birthday? Seriously? As if that's going to win her friends in the press? I was gratified that when she said that, there was just <crickets>.  They wanted to talk about Comey, but she wasn't helpful, just redundant.

[47of74]

16 minutes ago, AuntK said:

I'm not a violent person, but something about Sarah Huckabee Sanders makes me want to punch her in her smug face! And to begin the press briefing with the announcement that today is her daughter's birthday? Seriously? As if that's going to win her friends in the press? I was gratified that when she said that, there was just <crickets>.  They wanted to talk about Comey, but she wasn't helpful, just redundant.

That's why I don't watching news all that much because I'd probably wind up putting my fist through the TV or throwing my TV out the window listening to these fuckheads speak.