Russian Connection 4: Do Not Congratulate

[fraurosena]

Manafort is going down, ya'll.

 

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[GreyhoundFan]

"The truth about Trump and Russia that Republicans cannot say out loud"

Spoiler

It is being widely reported today that many Republicans are criticizing President Trump’s refusal to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over his sabotage of American democracy. Many of their statements sided with the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election, and defended our intelligence services against Trump’s continued assault against them.

But ask yourself this question: How many of those statements from Republicans also acknowledged the conclusion of the intelligence community that the goal of that Russian interference was to elect Trump?

Obviously, Republicans are reluctant to say that out loud, because it might diminish the greatness of Trump’s victory, which would anger him and his voters. But I think this gaping hole in the public posture of the GOP hints at deeper truths about the predicament that Republicans — and all of us — are consumed with right now.

The Washington Examiner reports today that many Republicans are privately worried that Trump’s display with Putin will hurt them in November’s midterm elections. Their concerns: Republicans lose when the focus is on the Russia investigation and Trump’s temperamental recklessness, and not on the economy, and swing voters aren’t going to side with Trump on this matter. As one aide to a vulnerable House Republican put it: “Is there an independent, swing voter in the country who would say: ‘Yeah, I really think Putin is telling the truth and the U.S. Department of Justice is the real problem?’ ”

It’s good to have it confirmed that Republicans admit this. After all, we keep hearing that Trump is “winning” in his effort to delegitimize the Russia probe. But beyond this, it creates a problem for Republicans. That’s because the Republican base sides with Trump (and increasingly with Putin, as well) against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. As one House Republican suggested to CNBC’s John Harwood, Republicans must be careful about opposing Trump when they stand up for the Russia inquiry, because “my constituents love him.”

This may explain GOP members’ responses to Trump’s performance. Their statements mostly focused on the impropriety of Trump siding with Putin against U.S. institutions and democracy, or urged the president to accept the intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia generally interfered while vouching for those conclusions.

That’s good, but tellingly, these statements do this in a limited way: They don’t acknowledge the intelligence services’ consensus view that the Russian sabotage effort was designed to elect Trump. (If I missed statements like this, or if some emerge, I’ll update.) The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded this — and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he accepts the prevailing consensus, while avoiding specifics — but the House Intelligence Committee, which has been converted by Trump loyalists into a bad-faith effort to undermine the Mueller probe, conspicuously refused to reach that conclusion.

Thus, the statement from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) says nothing about Trump, because he wants to portray House Republicans as being on the same page as the intelligence community and as a functional oversight body acting in good faith. But engaging on the point about Russia’s goal that the House Intelligence Committee refused to acknowledge would blow that effort up.

The big unknown

The Republican evasion on this is not just a political dodge to avoid offending Trump voters. It’s also substantively important. The big unknown right now is why Trump refuses to take Russian sabotage of our democracy seriously, at a time when our own intelligence officials say it will happen again. The easy answer that has been pushed by Republicans and some Trump loyalists is that the president doesn’t want to diminish the appearance of his victory’s legitimacy. It’s just a matter of ego and temperament. It’s just crazy Trump being crazy Trump.

But as this Brian Beutler thread demonstrates, that explanation cracks up against the known facts. We all had good reason to suspect in real time that Russia was interfering, and Trump relished it, and even encouraged it, as it happened. Now that Mueller’s indictments have started fleshing out the fuller dimensions of this sabotage and its now-confirmed goal of electing Trump, this can no longer be about guarding appearances of legitimacy, because his current conduct makes that more suspect. The only conceivable explanation is that he was both perfectly happy to benefit from Russian interference and wants to obstruct/or and delegitimize the ferreting out of the truth.

Republicans are trying to lock away the reason for Russian interference, and separate it from the debate over Trump’s current conduct. Engaging with that reason would force uncomfortable questions about that conduct to the fore. It would make it harder to continue standing idly by in the face of Trump’s efforts to keep the truth buried — by refusing to protect the Mueller probe, or by actively continuing to abet those efforts, as House Republicans are still doing to this day. As David Frum notes, Trump’s deference to Putin shows that getting the president’s tax returns is now urgent, to get to the bottom of why Trump is doing all of this, and to put to rest the worst interpretations — and thus, the failure to do this reveals serious GOP dereliction.

Indeed, it is becoming inescapably obvious that Republicans don’t particularly want to know the answer to that question.

...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Dmitri Rohrabacher is full of crap: "Rep. Rohrabacher: Indictment of NRA-linked Russian is 'stupid'"

Spoiler

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) says he’s not sure whether he’s the congressman mentioned in Monday’s indictment of a Russian gun-rights activist for acting as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin — but he is sure that the charge against the woman is “bogus.”

The indictment of 29-year-old Mariia Butina notes that she had discussions with a prominent Russian official — believed to be Alexander Torshin — about his plans to “meet with a U.S. Congressman during a Congressional Delegation trip to Moscow in August 2015."

Rohrabacher said on Tuesday that he was part of that delegation, but he said he was there with at least one other lawmaker and a larger group of Americans.

“I know I had dinner with [Butina] along with another member, along with a visiting delegation to Russia,” he said. “Is that something we should be worried about?”

Rohrabacher unloaded on the indictment, which alleged clandestine efforts by Butina to set up a back channel between Russian and American political leaders, using the National Rifle Association as a conduit.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s stupid,” Rohrabacher said. “She’s the assistant of some guy who is the head of the bank and is a member of their Parliament. That’s what we call a spy? That shows you how bogus this whole thing is.”

“This is an attempt to undermine the president’s ability to have better relationships with Russia,” he added.

Rohrabacher’s own relationship with Russia has come under scrutiny in recent months. He hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing but he’s developed connections with many of the players being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. For instance, Rohrabacher at one time took a meeting with a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician arranged by Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who is preparing to stand trial for a raft of fraud and money laundering charges. He also participated in a 2013 meeting involving Manafort and another lobbyist.

Rohrabacher also reportedly met in 2016 with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was the central figure in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting convened by Donald Trump Jr. that is now a focal point of Mueller’s investigation.

And he met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last year and discussed an attempt to brief Trump on the meeting and connect Assange with American officials.

Rohrabacher on Tuesday dismissed the Butina charges as a function of the “deep state,” a term used by President Trump to deride law enforcement officials as conspirators in a plot to undermine him.

“There are people in what we call 'deep state,' meaning these guys have wormed their way into power in the Obama years and before and have their own political agenda,” Rohrabacher said. “And they’re utilizing every bit of leverage that they’ve got to accomplish their mission.”

Rohrabacher said he’s not concerned he’ll become entangled with law enforcement.

“They can’t because Dana Rohrabacher is the chairman of the committee who has jurisdiction to oversee America’s relations with Russia,” he said, referring to his role chairing the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats. “Anybody who I meet, especially somebody who works for the head of their bank — they have taken very public people and claiming that they’re spies. Give me a break.”

Rohrabacher said he not heard from Mueller or his team at any point in the investigation and doesn’t expect he will.

“They know it’s all bogus,” he said, “and they know that I’m not a pushover.”

No, honey, you haven't heard from Mueller because he already has the info he needs about you.

[GreyhoundFan]

A slam on both Dumpy and Sarah Palin using one sign!

[AmazonGrace]

 

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Did Trump sell out a former ambassador that Putin hates?

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 I'm sure it's just a coincidence

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Hi I'm a Russian spy, please tell me about how to hack you

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

She is considered a flight risk

[AmazonGrace]

 

oh no, not Fredo!

I'm sure it's just a coincidence

[Howl]

 

12 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

I'm sure it's just a coincidence

I think what you meant was #I'mSureIt'sJustACoincidence

And my goodness, we're only midway through the best Infrastructure Week ever. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Howl]

Holy Borscht!  It's looking like Butina was a honey pot (red sparrow)!  At least that's the conclusion on Ari Melber and MediaIte.  From MediaIte: Russian Spy Maria Butina Allegedly Offered Sex to ‘US Person’ to Get Job at ‘Special Interest Organization’

I wonder if someone in Russia got a kick out of a redheaded red sparrow.

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

It's Russians. But it could be other people. There are a lot of countries out there. 

[AmazonGrace]

.

Russian asset says what

 

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Does Trump know what he agreed to?

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Clapper: Intel officials showed Trump evidence of Putin's role in election meddling

Quote

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday that President Trump was given classified documents in January 2017 that showed Russian President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in Moscow's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"We left very highly classified written documents which laid out in more detail the evidence that we had," Clapper said on CNN. "And so the fact that President Putin was directly involved and directly order this and that no big decisions are made in Russia any way without Putin — all that was laid out."

 

 

Clapper's comment comes a day after The New York Times reported that Trump was shown information about Russia's election interference at a briefing weeks before his inauguration. The Times reported that Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and former FBI Director James Comey briefed him on documents that lead them to believe that Putin ordered cyberattacks to disrupt the election.

The Times noted that Trump was "grudgingly convinced" Putin ordered the interference.

Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence from 2010-2017, said on CNN that he remembers the meeting as a "reasonably professional exchange." 

"But I do think there was skepticism from the get-go from that day to this day," Clapper said, referring to Trump.

Clapper later said he wonders "whether the Russians have something on him," based on the president's behavior this week.

The comments from Clapper come during a week in which Trump has made several remarks contradicting the U.S. intelligence community's unanimous assessment regarding Russia's election interference.

On Monday, Trump said he saw no reason why Russia would interfere in the presidential election — remarks he made alongside Putin at a joint press conference in Helsinki. Trump walked back the comment a day later, saying he misspoke, while adding “could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”

When asked on Wednesday if he thought Russia is still targeting the U.S, Trump responded, "no." The White House later said he responded "no" to answering the reporter’s question, not to the question itself.

Trump later said in a CBS interview that he holds Putin personally responsible for election interference. 

“I do have confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted," he said

Last week special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for their alleged role in hacking the Democratic National Committee.

 

[fraurosena]

And you know what? This is why the presidunce is bending over backwards to do Putin's bidding. He's scared shitless that if he doesn't, he'll also be on that hit-list. It's not a pee-pee tape, it's simply fear for his own life.

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course he is: "Trump says he’s looking forward to second summit with Putin"

Spoiler

President Trump on Thursday said he looks forward to a second meeting with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, even as details remained sketchy about what was accomplished during their summit in Helsinki three days ago.

Trump lashed out on Twitter about news media coverage of Monday’s meeting with Putin, which has focused heavily on Trump’s refusal to publicly confront Putin about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more. There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems . . . but they can ALL be solved!”

Neither the White House nor Kremlin has announced another meeting between Trump and Putin, though both sides now have expressed an interest in continuing dialogue.

Trump told law­makers this week he and Putin had made “significant progress toward addressing” key issues. U.S. officials have offered few specifics on what was accomplished on those subjects beyond what White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday called “the beginning of a dialogue with Russia.”

The president’s longest encounter with Putin, a two-hour-plus session, included no other officials or note-takers, just interpreters.

In a brief speech Thursday to Russian diplomats in Moscow, Putin said the Helsinki summit had led to “useful agreements.” Now, he said, both U.S. jobs and European and Middle Eastern security hang in the balance as Trump’s U.S. opponents try to block the path to improving relations between Moscow and Washington.

“We will see how things go, as some forces in America are trying to belittle and disavow the results of the Helsinki meeting,” Putin said. “We see that there are forces in the United States ready to sacrifice Russian-American relations for their own domestic political ambitions.”

A day earlier, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told reporters in Moscow “important verbal agreements” were reached at the Helsinki meeting.

That includes preservation of the New START and INF agreements, major bilateral arms-control treaties whose futures have been in question, Antonov said. He also relayed Putin had made “specific and interesting proposals to Washington” on how the two countries could cooperate on Syria.

In the United States, the focus in the days since the summit has been on Trump’s views on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the degree to which Russia remains a threat — as well as what was accomplished.

On Thursday, the fallout continued on Capitol Hill.

Senate Republicans blocked two attempts to pass resolutions backing the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, while insisting that the president cooperate with the Mueller investigation and take punitive steps against the Russian government for the threat it continues to pose.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued against voting on the first resolution, presented by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), saying that it was an unwarranted attempt to engage in diplomacy and that “Trump derangement syndrome has officially come to the Senate.”

Sanders shot back, arguing that his resolution simply sought to affirm the intelligence community’s determinations in the face of the president’s equivocation and protect the sanctity of the special counsel’s probe.

Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) also unsuccessfully attempted to secure a vote on a resolution throwing support behind the intelligence community’s determinations and the Justice Department for Mueller’s probe and calling on the president to fully implement the sanctions that Congress passed last year.

But Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) objected, dismissing the bipartisan effort as needlessly “symbolic.”

“Yes it’s symbolic, the symbolism is important, our agencies of government need to know that we stand behind them, that’s what this is about,” a visibly frustrated Flake retorted on the floor, promising to raise the resolution again and predicting that “ultimately it will pass.”

McConnell has already called on the chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations and Banking Committees to hold a new round of hearings on sanctions and other matters related to Russian aggression.

On Thursday, the Republican leader scheduled a floor vote on only one of the many resolutions being offered: a measure from Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Brian Schatz (Hi.) expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not make any current or former American diplomats, political appointees, troops, or law enforcement officials available to Russian authorities for interviews.

On Monday, Putin raised the possibility of interviewing Russian officials indicted in Mueller’s probe in exchange for Russia having the same access to similar American officials; in the days since, he has expressed a particular interest in interviewing former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

None of the resolutions offered Thursday would be binding.

Schumer, meanwhile, expressed exasperation on the Senate floor that so little is known about what took place behind closed doors between Trump and Putin.

He called for bringing in Trump administration officials who were present at the summit, including the translator who accompanied Trump in the private meeting with Putin, “so we all know what happened.”

“Do we know if President Trump made commitments about the security of Israel or Syria of North Korea or any of the other issues the president said he discussed with Putin?” Schumer asked. “It is utterly amazing, utterly amazing that no one knows what was said. This is a democracy. If our president makes agreements with one of our leading — if not our leading — adversary, his Cabinet has to know about it and so do the American people.”

The prospect of calling Trump’s translator to testify generated some intense debate Thursday.

Flake advocated at least getting the notes of the translator.

“I mean, when the Russian ambassador is saying that important verbal agreements were reached, we don’t know what those are? I mean, how are we going to know what those are? The White House isn’t saying.”

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he thought it would not be appropriate to interview the translator.

“I think we’re moving to a precedent that unless some crime has been committed is unprecedented and just not appropriate,” he said. “I will stand with anybody in my challenging of what’s occurred around Russia. There’s nobody that’s been more concerned about that. ...If someone can convince me otherwise, I’d be glad to reconsider.”

While Trump asserted only the media has panned his summit with Putin, some of the harshest criticism of his performance in a joint news conference with the Russian leader has come from fellow Republicans.

On Tuesday, Trump sought to tamp down criticism of his performance in Helsinki by affirming his support for the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia was behind the attack on the election.

Trump ignited another firestorm Wednesday by appearing to suggest Russia is no longer seeking to interfere in U.S. elections — prompting the White House to assert hours later his words were misconstrued.

In his remarks Thursday, Schumer blasted Trump for “all his walkbacks.”

“Frankly, any post hoc clarifications cannot substitute or repair the president’s failure to confront Putin face to face.”

Vice President Pence, meanwhile, defended the administration’s approach to Russia. During a speech in St. Louis, he cited a series of sanctions, expulsion of diplomats and other steps taken in retaliation to Russia’s meddling and other actions.

“We’ve met Russian aggression with American strength and action,” Pence said.

I wonder how much Putin has gotten to Misha Pence.