The Muscovite Candidate

[Econoline]

Jim, I know you have no use for Wonkette and would never in a gazillion years wander over to that site in search of enlightenment or even entertainment...

But I guar-ron-tee this account of Megyn Kelly's interview with Putin will provide you with at least a few chuckles:

• Megyn Kelly has a new job, everyone! Her NBC show “At Least I Don’t Have To Run Into Sean Hannity In The Break Room Anymore” premiered on Sunday night, and to mark the occasion, she interviewed Vladimir Putin, probable puppetmaster of Donald Trump and KGB president of Russia. And oh boy, she had some questions for him about Russian meddling in the American election! And to your utter shock and awe, it appears that he lied like a slimy Russian KGB man the entire time.
  
  In fact, Kelly interviewed Putin twice, once for her show, and earlier, in a panel discussion she moderated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Here’s a clip of the earlier interview, before we get down to the big exciting one-on-one primetime thing:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7p7MxDfXF4

  
  
  
  In the panel discussion, Putin told Kelly that Russia didn’t hack America’s election, but maybe a toddler like Megyn Kelly’s daughter did! That’s right, you didn’t know Donald Trump’s 400 pound-hacker in New Jersey was a LITTLE GIRL NAMED “MADISYN” OR SOMETHING:

  What are you talking about? IP addresses, they can be invented you know … a kid of yours can send it, your girl that is three years old can perpetrate such an attack.

  
  Putin also said blaming Russia for the hacking is just like anti-Semitism, but as NBC News notes, earlier in the same forum, he said MAYBE some “patriotic” Russian hackers might have hacked America, but he didn’t know anything about it, no way, you bet, that’s right, AYUP.
  
  Now let’s watch the primetime interview! Here’s the video, and then we will give you some of Putin’s bullshit answers:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AeBAV4EIY

  
  
  Question: Literally ALL AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES agree that Russia fucked around in our election. Is everyone lying about poor, put-upon Russia?

  They have been misled, and they aren’t analyzing the information in its entirety. I haven’t seen even once any direct proof of Russian interference in the presidential election in the United States.

  
  Question: Uh huh, so what about those “patriotic” Russian hackers? Why did you suddenly say that?

  Hackers can be anywhere. They can be in Russia. In Asia. Even in America. Latin America. They can even be hackers in the United States, who very skillfully and professionally shifted the blame onto Russia. Could you accept that?

  
  Nah, because it’s bullshit.
  
  Putin went on to say America probably faked the Russian hacking just like how there is a conspiracy theory that says American intelligence did the Kennedy assassination. Was Ted Cruz’s dad involved? WE ARE JUST ASKING! (To be more clear, Donald Trump was just asking, last year.)
  
  Putin also said America doesn’t have any room to talk, because America has interfered in MANY other countries’ elections. Kelly replied, “With respect, that sounds like a justification [for what Russia CLEARLY DID].” What say you, Vlad?

  It doesn’t sound like a justification. It sounds like a statement of fact. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

  
  Wait, so he’s saying that Russia did it as an equal and opposite reaction to what America always does? No, that is not what he is saying, so stop trying to catch Vladimir in lies!
  
  QUESTION: So what about the special prosecutor investigating Russian interference and the possibility Team Trump colluded with Russia? What about all those meetings various Trump officials (Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, etc.) had with the Russian ambassador?

  There were NO MEETINGS. You understand? There were NO MEETINGS. When I saw this, MY JAW DROPPED.

  
  None?

  I have no idea, I’m being completely honest with you. I don’t know!

  
  
  Oh well OK. Putin says his ambassadors meet with people every day and that it’s just CUH-RAZY to think he might have any knowledge of such things. What is he, the president of Russia or something? He concluded by saying the Trump team didn’t discuss lifting sanctions “or anything else” in the meetings Putin just said A) didn’t happen and B) he had no knowledge of.
  
  Putin asserted in the interview that he DOES NOT KNOW disgraced former national security adviser/literal actual foreign agent Michael Flynn, and when they had dinner together at that RT event in Moscow (with Jill Stein too!) they didn’t even chit-chat. Indeed, Putin said he has a closer relationship with MEGYN KELLY than he has with Michael Flynn, because they worked together on this interview.
  
  And what about Trump? Has Putin ever met him? And more importantly, does he have any compromising information on Trump, as the Steele Dossier suggests, and like many others in the intelligence community have whispered about?

  Well this is just another load of nonsense. Where would we get this information from? Why, did we have some special relationship with him? We didn’t have any relationship at all. There was a time when he used to come to Moscow, but you know, I never met with him. We have a lot of Americans who come visit us … do you think we’re gathering compromising information on all of them right now or something? Have you all lost your senses over there?

  
  No pee hooker. No pee hooker. YOU’RE the pee hooker. Though Russia really does have the finest pee hookers in the world.
  
  Here is the part where Putin scolds America for being SO MEAN and DECLARING WAR ON our beautifully and democratically elected president, Donald Trump, who deserves our love and respect:

  This is just amazing. You created a sensation OUT OF NOTHING. And out of this sensation you turned it into a weapon of war against the current president. Well this is, you know, you’re just, you people are SO creative over there. Good job. Your lives must be BORING.

  
  Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, what a slimy fuck.
  
  Putin did behave differently from his boy Trump in this interview in one important way — he DID NOT accuse Megyn Kelly of “bleeding from her wherever,” like Trump did during that debate. Putin did, however, say during the panel discussion that somebody needs to give Megyn Kelly a “pill” to cure her mean anti-Russia feelings, but in that instance, it seemed like he was using her as a stand-in for ALL PATRIOTIC AMERICANS, who need to just get over it apparently. Not gonna happen, Vlad!
  
  Not. Gonna. Fuckin’. Happen.

(Link to the original article on the Wonkette site)

Top-quality highly-enriched weapons-grade snark!

[Lord Jim]

I thought Kelly did a superb job...

There was never going to to be a "Perry Mason Moment" with an eel as slimy as Putin, (Edward R. Murrow wouldn't have gotten that) but Kelly did a masterful job of getting this thug to demonstrate what a shameless prevaricator and dissembler he is...

No wonder Il Boobce is such a fan...

[Econoline]

Can't let this thread slip down to Page 2!

[BoSoxGal]

[RayThom]

Those twisted lyrics from "The Wall" always sounded so Dickensian to me. Now I'm compelled to play my PF/LP tomorrow.

[Burning Petard]

It is now clear, we have been getting it wrong. The POTUS is not connected to Moscow. He is hard wired to Pyongyang.

He had a cabinet meeting and proudly released it to the US public (see it here) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/p ... ivity.html

He clearly expects this adulation from his staff and from the American public. That is the real Americans, who all would vote for him even if he stood in the middle of 5th Avenue and shot somebody. At least the POTUS has not yet emulated Kim Jang-un by using an anti-tank gun to eliminate a undesired subordinate. But he is getting close. Now the White house is leaking that POTUS is gonna fire the special counsel investigating the Russian participation in our recent election.

No thanks to all those obstructionist democrats who will not approve executive appointments until the president actually makes them.

snailgate

[Big RR]

Firing the special counsel--where have I heard that before?

[Lord Jim]

Trump still doesn’t believe Russia interfered in the election: report

According to a Wall Street Journal report, President Donald Trump attempted to persuade the director of the National Security Administration to say that there was no collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia, and that he does not believe Russia interfered in his election.

According to sources familiar with the matter, there exists a memo written after a phone conversation between Trump and NSA Director Adm. Rogers where “the president questioned the veracity of the intelligence community’s judgment [17 agencies unanimous conclusion] that Russia had interfered with the election and also tried to persuade Adm. Rogers to say there was no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russian officials.”

On June 7, the day before former FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress about the events leading up to his firing by Trump, Adm. Rogers said he didn’t feel any pressure from the president “to push back against allegations of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

The Journal‘s report also confirms the Washington Post and New York Times reports that Trump is now being investigated for potential obstruction of justice by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/trump-s ... on-report/

Trump Administration trying to ‘weaken’ and ‘dilute’ bipartisan Russian sanctions: report

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Russia and prevent President Donald Trump from being able to unilaterally ease sanctions absent congressional approval.

Yet a short time after the 97 – 2 vote for the legislation, there was already word that the Trump administration was seeking to weaken the bill.

“I know that some people in the White House are pushing back,” Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Business Insider. “People in the White House, we hear, are making calls in the House to try to stop it, slow it, weaken it, dilute it.”

Today’s vote was the most significant blow the Republican President has received from the Republican Congress.

The bill was opposed by Trump’s State Department.

“I would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the President to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers. “Essentially, we would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to, but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue.”

Earlier this month, former U.S. officials told the Daily Beast the Trump White House, “attempted to argue the sanctions against the Russian oil industry harm the U.S. economy, but State Department officials were able to successfully argue the opposite is true.”

President Trump is reportedly under investigation for Obstruction of Justice after firing FBI Director James Comey for investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/trump-a ... ns-report/

[Burning Petard]

In the recent appearance of Attny Genl Sessions before a Senate committee, he spoke very generally about his participation in the presidential campaign. I want somebody to explain how the party platform developed at the GOP convention. Session was a participant. At the time, it was widely reported, and I found no dispute on Fox news or other venues saying other wise--the Trump group had no input on the platform at all, they did not care what was in the platform EXCEPT. They insisted on a plank that opposed any military support for Ukraine.

I have a hard copy of the official platform approved at the convention. It is 66 pages long, one-sided. The only thing The Trump people wanted was the US to stand aside in the Ukraine while Russian grabbed.

snailgate

[Lord Jim]

Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it.

The meeting — at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Donald J. Trump clinched the Republican nomination — points to the central question in federal investigations of the Kremlin’s meddling in the presidential election: whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.

While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and the Russians, the episode at Trump Tower is the first such confirmed private meeting involving his inner circle during the campaign — as well as the first one known to have included his eldest son. It came at an inflection point in the campaign, when Donald Trump Jr., who served as an adviser and a surrogate, was ascendant and Mr. Manafort was consolidating power.

It is unclear whether the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually produced the promised compromising information about Mrs. Clinton. But the people interviewed by The Times about the meeting said the expectation was that she would do so.

When he was first asked about the meeting on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. said that it was primarily about adoptions and mentioned nothing about Mrs. Clinton.

But on Sunday, presented with The Times’s findings, he offered a new account. In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. [I agree with Junior there; the idea that somebody connected with the Russian government wanted to help Clinton makes absolutely no sense]No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The 2012 law so enraged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he halted American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

Two people briefed on the meeting said the intermediary was Rob Goldstone, a former British tabloid journalist and the president of a company called Oui 2 Entertainment who has worked with the Miss Universe pageant. He did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the president’s lawyer, said on Sunday that “the president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.”

Lawyers for Mr. Kushner referred to their statement a day earlier, confirming that he voluntarily disclosed the meeting but referring questions about it to Donald Trump Jr. Mr. Manafort declined to comment. In his statement, Donald Trump Jr. said he asked Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner to attend, but did not tell them what the meeting was about.[Yeah, that just makes all kinds of sense. "Hey Jared and Paul, I'd like you to come to a meeting I've set up with a Russian with close ties to the Putin regime, but I'm not going to tell you what it's about"]

Political campaigns collect opposition research from many quarters but rarely from sources linked to foreign governments.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hackers and propagandists worked to tip the election toward Donald J. Trump, in part by stealing and then providing to WikiLeaks internal Democratic Party and Clinton campaign emails that were embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton. WikiLeaks began releasing the material on July 22.

Ms. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer invited to the Trump Tower meeting, is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act.

The adoption impasse is a frequently used talking point for opponents of the act. Ms. Veselnitskaya’s campaign against the law has also included attempts to discredit the man after whom it was named, Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor who died in 2009 in mysterious circumstances in a Russian prison after exposing one of the biggest corruption scandals during Mr. Putin’s rule.

Ms. Veselnitskaya’s clients include state-owned businesses and a senior government official’s son, whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting. Her activities and associations had previously drawn the attention of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.

Ms. Veselnitskaya said in a statement on Saturday that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting. She recalled that after about 10 minutes, either Mr. Kushner or Mr. Manafort left the room.[Yeah, they left after she failed to produce the dirt on Hillary]

She said she had “never acted on behalf of the Russian government” and “never discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government.”Well that's certainly a credible claim ]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/p ... afort.html

Here's my take:

First, the Russians set up this meeting to test the willingness of senior Trump advisors and campaign officials to engage with them on political intel. They passed the test with flying colors.

Second, Junior changed his story about the meeting after being confronted with The Times piece because it was obvious from the story sourcing that if he hadn't, his account would have conflicted with Kushner's. (Under the advice of his excellent legal team, Kushner has been busy amending the original bullshit accounts of his meetings and phone calls with the Russians that he filed in conjunction with obtaining his security clearance)

[Scooter]

Am I missing something, or is this not an admission that high-level Trump campaign officials sought out Russian help to win the election? Does this not constitute the collusion that they have until now insisted did not exist?

[MajGenl.Meade]

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

So he went to the meeting because he thought the Russians would give information on Hillary Clinton that would be helpful to Trump - i.e. damaging to Clinton.

Well, that's all right then.

[Scooter]

Cat got your tongue, wes?

[Lord Jim]

This is like a college student who offers this "defense":

"Look, I met with the guy because he told me he had the the answers to the chemistry mid-term, but then it turned he really wanted to talk about something else"...

[dales]

Cat got your tongue, wes?

Same with liberty, both of these clods have been quiet of late.

[Scooter]

He keeps playing this game of "I'll come back and post on completely unrelated topics, but won't engage on real issues"* because in spite of his pretensions he has nothing to add to the discussion except the talking points fed to him and the other Trumpanzees.





*recall a previous unlamented poster who figured that for a winning strategy, and how well it ended up working for her

[Lord Jim]

This story just gets better and better...

Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign

WASHINGTON — Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an e-mail that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the e-mail.

The e-mail to the younger Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement Sunday, Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Clinton, but he gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

Goldstone’s message, as described by three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information. It does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign. There is no evidence to suggest that the promised damaging information was related to Russian government computer hacking that led to the release of thousands of Democratic National Committee e-mails.

But the e-mail is likely to be of keen interest to the Justice Department and congressional investigators, [one would certainly imagine so] who are examining whether any of President Trump’s associates colluded with the Russian government to disrupt last year’s election. US intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government attempted to sway the election in favor of Trump.

In a series of tweets, the president’s son insisted he did what anyone connected to a political campaign would have done — to hear out potentially damaging information about an opponent. He maintained that his various statements about the meeting weren’t in conflict.

“Obviously I’m the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent . . . went nowhere but had to listen,” he wrote in one tweet. In another, he added, “No inconsistency in statements, meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q’s I simply provided more details.”[ Junior's a real chip off the ol' block...]

More here:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/ ... newsletter

[BoSoxGal]

Can they still wriggle out of this?

[Lord Jim]

This story just gets better and better...

and better and better...

Donald Trump Jr. releases email chain on his Russian meeting

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed to meet with a "Russian government attorney" last summer after receiving an email offering him "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to emails the younger Trump publicly released on Tuesday.

An email from publicist Rob Goldstone offered Trump Jr. a meeting with a "Russian government attorney" after offering "some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia."


"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," Goldstone, who represents the son of an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman close to Russian government, wrote in the email to Trump Jr.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. replied, according to the email he released.

The Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, denied in an interview with NBC News having ever acted on behalf of the Russian government.

And despite Goldstone's promises, Veselnitskaya offered no consequential information on Clinton, according to the lawyer and Trump Jr.

Trump Jr. tweeted out the emails after The New York Times first reported on the meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer on Saturday. The Times subsequently reported that Trump Jr. had been informed that the information he was promised on Clinton was part of Russian government efforts to help his father's campaign.
Trump Jr. tweeted that he was releasing the emails to be "totally transparent," but his release came moments before The New York Times published the emails.[Presumably his new lawyer told him he might as well go ahead and get it out; he's clearly getting better advice than his Old Man]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/11/politics/ ... index.html

And now of course Il Boobce and his minions will be insisting that the only thing wrong that was done here, was done by whoever gave these emails to the NY Times...

[ex-khobar Andy]

From Frank Bruni's column in today's NYT:

There’s no proof that Donald Trump Sr. knew of the meeting with the Russian lawyer, though there’s this: In the week between its scheduling and its occurrence back in June 2016, he made public remarks in which he said he’d be delivering a special speech about Clinton’s wrongdoing that was set — oh so interestingly, in retrospect — for a few days after the meeting. But that meeting, we’re now told, was a bust, with no great trove of Clinton-wounding revelations, and the speech didn’t happen as promised.

Oh yes I remember that, and nothing materialized. Could it be that little Donny 2 led Sr. to believe that there was treasure at the end of the Russian rainbow? Enquiring minds want to know.