Plan B Forum

In tweet attacking Obama, Trump says Russia tried to influence election

WASHINGTON — President Trump appeared to acknowledge that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election, but only so he could blame former president Barack Obama.

“Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?” Trump tweeted Friday night.

By Saturday afternoon he tweeted again saying to focus on the Obama Administration and not "T".

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump

Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T!
1:28 PM - 24 Jun 2017

This is a rare instance where the president has acknowledged what the intelligence community and bipartisan members of Congress already have, which is that Russia attempted to interfere with the presidential election.

Until Friday, Trump has remained vague about whether he believes the Russians meddled. Earlier this week the president said on Twitter that conversations regarding the alleged meddling were “all a big Dem HOAX!” and “excuse for losing the election!

But following a Washington Post report Friday Trump seemed to have changed his approach.

The Washington Post published a lengthy investigation of how the Obama administration had handled discoveries that the Russians were attempting to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The report shows the handwringing that officials went through on how to respond and how and when to alert the public.

While Obama did authorize a cyber operation that would make it possible to retaliate against Russia, it was still in the early stages when Trump took office.

In an interview with Fox News, which is set to air Sunday, Trump said: “I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it.”[How is it even kind of possible that he would be learning about it "for the first time" Just now from a Washington Post story? He's the friggin' POTUS fercrisakes. He's had access to information about what the previous administration did and didn't do about this for months...]

“The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before they even — before the election,” he said. The question is, if he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it.”

Trump says he tweeted about tapes to influence Comey's account of their private conversations

President Trump called it “bothersome” that the special counsel now overseeing the Russia probe was “good friends” with fired FBI Director James B. Comey, and said he hinted at having tapes of his private conversations — apparently falsely — to try to influence Comey's eventual testimony.

The president made his remarks during an interview that aired Friday morning on “Fox & Friends," but was recorded on Thursday just hours after he tweeted that he did not, in fact, have tapes. Trump said that floating the possibility they did exist might have forced Comey "to tell what actually took place at the events."

“When he found out that, I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether it’s governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed,” Trump said. “My story didn’t change. My story was always a straight story.”

Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt followed up: “So it was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings?”

“It wasn’t very stupid, I can tell you that,” Trump answered.[Well, that's highly debatable...]

Many disagree, including Republicans. Comey testified that Trump’s tweet is what prompted him to ask a friend to slip contemporaneous memos of his conversations with Trump to reporters, to “get that out into the public square.”

In his accounts and his subsequent testimony to Congress, Comey conveyed his concerns that the president was asking him to drop the various Russia-related investigations, a request suggestive of obstruction of justice, and that Trump might lie about their encounters.

By getting the content of his memos into the news, “I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It did.[So getting a Special Counsel appointed was all part of Trump's cunning plan...] Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein named Robert Mueller, a widely regarded lawyer who served as FBI director for more than a decade before Comey, to oversee the Russia probe.

The Spice-man is going have a conniption trying to makes sense of it all.

Crackpot wrote:Almond display!?