The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns. - Page 1360 - Politics and Economics

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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns.

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05-18-2017 , 08:41 PM

#33976

Joshfan

veteran

Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 2,751

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Sklansky

I believe Comey is going to disappoint you. He gave some testimony that the FBI has never had to deal with someone trying to stop an investigation.

It's been pointed out already, but no he didn't.

05-18-2017 , 08:43 PM

#33977

DisGunBGud

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 23,708

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Sklansky

I believe Comey is going to disappoint you. He gave some testimony that the FBI has never had to deal with someone trying to stop an investigation. His farewell letter included words stating that the president has every right to fire him even though he didn't have to write that, and would actually be a bit odd to write if he thought he was being fired for not stopping the investigation. Most importantly he has to downplay the significance of Trump's dinner comments to avoid getting in trouble himself.

You should probably blame your "girlfriend" for this one

05-18-2017 , 08:44 PM

#33978

Double Eagle

Health Care Thread Czar

Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 8,323

Wittes post on Lawfare goes is more interesting and in depth than the NYT story. This section about Rosenstein seems spot on.

Quote:

He said one other thing that day that, in retrospect, stands out in my memory: he expressed wariness about the then-still-unconfirmed deputy attorney general nominee, Rod Rosenstein. This surprised me because I had always thought well of Rosenstein and had mentioned his impending confirmation as a good thing. But Comey did not seem enthusiastic. The FBI does need Senate-confirmed leadership, he agreed, noting that Dana Boente had done a fine job as acting deputy but that having confirmed people to make important decisions was critical. And he agreed with me that Rosenstein had a good reputation as a solid career guy.

That said, his reservations were palpable. “Rod is a survivor,” he said. And you don’t get to survive that long across administrations without making compromises. “So I have concerns.”

In retrospect, I think I know what Comey must have been thinking at that moment. He had been asked to pledge loyalty by Trump. When he had declined, and even before, he had seen repeated efforts to—from his point of view—undermine his independence and probe the FBI’s defenses against political interference. He had been asked to drop an investigation. He had spent the last few months working to defend the normative lines that protect the FBI from the White House. And he had felt the need personally to make clear to the President that there were questions he couldn't ask about investigative matters. So he was asking himself, I suspect: What loyalty oath had Rosenstein been asked to swear, and what happened at whatever dinner that request took place?

I don’t want to make a unified field theory out of these incidents, which are pieces of a much larger mosaic—a mosaic that surely includes whatever Comey knew about the Russia investigation, among many other things. But I am confident that these incidents tell a story about Comey’s thinking over the months that he and Trump were in office together. And I think they also sketch a trajectory in which Trump kept Comey on board only as long as it took him to figure out that there was no way to make Comey part of the team. Once he realized that he couldn’t do that—and that the Russia matter was thus not going away—he pulled the trigger.

05-18-2017 , 08:51 PM

#33979

wheatrich

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 21,405

R's all love lieberman for some reason, so he might get confirmed but lots of D's are gonna vote no.

looooooooool

05-18-2017 , 08:54 PM

#33980

RV Life

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 1,935

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mayo

I am exceedingly proud to be the creator of this GIF. This is my legacy.

It's from the Bruce Springsteen Live in NYC DVD, and Steve is nodding along here as Bruce explains all the ways that New Jersey is better than New York City, if anyone cares. I think the song is "Light of Day."

Haha that's awesome.

05-18-2017 , 08:55 PM

#33981

wheatrich

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 21,405

The senate intel committee that is gonna save the day

can't even get comey's address, WAAF

05-18-2017 , 08:58 PM

#33982

dinopoker

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 9,437

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jkpoker10

Is it fair to say trump will go down as the worst president of all time?

It's between him and Jefferson Davis at this point, I think.

05-18-2017 , 09:00 PM

#33983

PocketChads

guaranteed 42-10 finish

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,476

The news media not caring about Erdogan's thugs on US soil is just one of thousands of reasons WAAF

05-18-2017 , 09:06 PM

#33984

wheatrich

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 21,405

Quote:

Originally Posted by PocketChads

The news media not caring about Erdogan's thugs on US soil is just one of thousands of reasons WAAF

They didn't care about our thugs beating up protestors, that's been normalized unfortunately.

05-18-2017 , 09:15 PM

#33985

DrChesspain

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mayo

Seeing Stevie like that always freaks me out, since I only know him from the Sopranos.

05-18-2017 , 09:37 PM

#33986

TheHip41

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Quote:

Originally Posted by David Sklansky

Another hot take from the genius

05-18-2017 , 09:41 PM

#33987

kre8tive

veteran

Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,114

https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/s...50483006959616

05-18-2017 , 09:47 PM

#33988

awval999

Election Monitor.

Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 6,269

Quote:

Originally Posted by kre8tive

https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/s...50483006959616

Classified meeting tho. Could mean anything.

05-18-2017 , 09:47 PM

#33989

AllCowsEatGrass

banned

Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 1,839

Erdogan's G-men beating up the protestors is nuts. This is yet another thing that if something similar had happened under Obama's admin, the right wing world would be calling for war.

05-18-2017 , 09:48 PM

#33990

Our House

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

Damn, Rachel is tearing it up tonight. In addition to the stories below, she threw a few jabs at Trump reporting how Comey said he was "teaching him" how to President properly (burrrrn, take that Drumpf!).

While not big headlines compared to the last week, tonight's stories are pretty packed with bits of evidence. Not strong evidence, but lots of puzzle pieces waiting to be corroborated.

I'm talking about the Reuters story with 18 undisclosed Russian-Trump contacts and the Comey memos story, showing more notes, and a named FBI witness who has seen them.

Interesting stuff that we can tuck aside and are likely to be referring to later when Comey testifies. This will probably be added to the investigations too, since it's all directly related to the scope.

05-18-2017 , 09:49 PM

#33991

uDevil

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Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 6,941

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheatrich

The senate intel committee that is gonna save the day

can't even get comey's address, WAAF

Better get that lady who found his Twitter account on this right away.

05-18-2017 , 09:51 PM

#33992

RV Life

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 1,935

Quote:

Originally Posted by awval999

Classified meeting tho. Could mean anything.

True. They were probably talking about BBQ recipes for Memorial Day coming up.

05-18-2017 , 09:54 PM

#33993

Our House

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

Quote:

Originally Posted by awval999

Classified meeting tho. Could mean anything.

I hope you're keeping track of how many stories you've been dismissing that are shown to be true shortly after. Probably not though.

05-18-2017 , 09:57 PM

#33994

uDevil

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Quote:

Originally Posted by wheatrich

congrats on getting people hyped up for not even a top 25 story this week mr. wittes.

also in everyone could've told you he was gonna do this news

There's a word for that..wait..it's coming to me...almost got it...oh yeah, it's a

Spoiler:

05-18-2017 , 10:08 PM

#33995

kre8tive

veteran

Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,114

Quote:

Originally Posted by awval999

Classified meeting tho. Could mean anything.

Yeah, could mean anything. Especially after same testimony Lindsay ****ing Graham said we can now consider this a criminal investigation. But you're right, could mean anything.

05-18-2017 , 10:17 PM

#33996

uDevil

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Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 6,941

Oh, man. Where's the loyalty?

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/sta...82957837627393
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/865375501661200384

05-18-2017 , 10:24 PM

#33997

ChrisV

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Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 40,336

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Sklansky

Since nobody has pointed out why this is wrong: Comey testified that in his experience the FBI had never been ordered to stop an investigation. The question also specified DOJ officials as the source of the order, so that would technically exclude Trump. But the main point is that Comey's testimony did not encompass informal requests of the sort he alleges Trump made.

05-18-2017 , 10:33 PM

#33998

ChrisV

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Probably also worth pointing out that the right wing sites apparently expecting that Comey would volunteer extremely damaging contents of a private conversation with Trump (when not asked about it) are the same ones who would be screaming about treason, abuse of position etc and calling for Comey's head if he had included that in his testimony.

05-18-2017 , 10:35 PM

#33999

ecriture d'adulte

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Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 6,577

Quote:

Originally Posted by kre8tive

Yeah, could mean anything. Especially after same testimony Lindsay ****ing Graham said we can now consider this a criminal investigation. But you're right, could mean anything.

That's just him Pontius Pilating. Congress cant do anything because there is an ongoing criminal investigation. Excuse works whether you want Trump in jail or reelected.