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kpete
kpete's Journal
kpete's Journal
February 28, 2019
RIP: Trump's border wall prototypes are being reduced to rubble. Via AP
VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1100914741894176772
February 28, 2019
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1101069893594542081
Trump-Kim summit ending early
BY REBECCA KHEEL
The schedule for President Trump and Kim Jong Un’s second day of meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam was abruptly changed Thursday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters in Vietnam that talks would wrap up earlier than expected, with Trump returning to his hotel in the next 30 to 45 minutes.
Trump and Kim were originally supposed to hold a working lunch that appears to have been canceled.
The two leaders were also scheduled to participate in ceremony to sign a joint agreement. Sanders declined to say whether that ceremony would still happen, but it appears unlikely.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/431957-trump-kim-summit-ending-early
Overnight in Hanoi, President Trump:
- Ended summit early without agmt
- Appeared to walk back demand for full denuclearization
- Questioned US intel assessment NK still expanding nuclear program
- Accepted Kim’s denial of involvement in Otto Warmbier death
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1101069893594542081
February 28, 2019
The issue is not collusion—it’s aiding and abetting.
DAVID CORNFEBRUARY 27, 2019 4:24 PM
Perhaps the most significant—and overlooked—aspect of the Trump-Russia scandal is that Donald Trump and his crew aided and abetted the Russian attack on the 2016 election by repeatedly denying or downplaying the clandestine Russian intervention aimed at assisting the president. Put aside the issue of direct collusion—say, Trump huddling with Russian President Vladimir Putin to figure out what Democratic emails to hack—the public record already establishes that Trump and his gang are guilty of echoing and reinforcing the Kremlin’s we-didn’t-do-it disinformation efforts, even after they had information indicating Moscow was covertly intervening. In that way, Trump helped Putin’s covert assault—an act of brazen information warfare—against the United States. And Michael Cohen’s historic and dramatic congressional testimony on Wednesday yielded new leads in this regard.
It’s already been demonstrated that Trump and his lieutenants possessed private knowledge that the Kremlin wanted to secretly assist the Trump effort during the campaign. In early June 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner—Trump’s top three campaign advisers—met in Trump Tower with a Russian emissary after being told she would deliver them dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a Moscow plot to help Trump. Two months later, Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, received a briefing from the US intelligence community in which he was told US analysts had concluded Moscow was behind the hack-and-dump attacks targeting Democrats. And from mid-June on, there were many media reports noting that cybersecurity experts and US intelligence agencies had fingered Russia as the culprit in the cyber break-in of the Democratic National Committee.
Yet throughout the campaign, the Trump team consistently declared in public that there was no reason to blame the Kremlin. (These denials prompted other Republicans, notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, to say little or nothing about the Russian attack.) Cohen’s testimony offered further reason to believe that Trump knew—or should have known—he was lying when he said Russia was not attacking the US election.
..............
Throughout the hearing, Republican members of the committee, who fixated on discrediting Cohen, showed not a scintilla of concern that during the 2016 campaign Trump misled the public about both the Russian attack and his own private dealing in Russia. And Trump defenders will certainly latch onto Cohen’s assertion that he witnessed no clear evidence of direct collusion. But Cohen, who repeatedly acknowledged he had previously lied to Congress, offered testimony that buttressed a core component of the Trump-Russia scandal: Trump helped Putin’s cover-up. And that’s a crucial part of the story that should not be allowed to get lost.
MORE:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/how-cohens-testimony-backs-up-the-case-that-trump-helped-russia-attack-the-2016-election/
David Corn new article on the Cohen testimony: The issue is not collusion--it's aiding and abetting.
How Cohen’s Testimony Backs Up the Case That Trump Helped Russia Attack the 2016 ElectionThe issue is not collusion—it’s aiding and abetting.
DAVID CORNFEBRUARY 27, 2019 4:24 PM
Perhaps the most significant—and overlooked—aspect of the Trump-Russia scandal is that Donald Trump and his crew aided and abetted the Russian attack on the 2016 election by repeatedly denying or downplaying the clandestine Russian intervention aimed at assisting the president. Put aside the issue of direct collusion—say, Trump huddling with Russian President Vladimir Putin to figure out what Democratic emails to hack—the public record already establishes that Trump and his gang are guilty of echoing and reinforcing the Kremlin’s we-didn’t-do-it disinformation efforts, even after they had information indicating Moscow was covertly intervening. In that way, Trump helped Putin’s covert assault—an act of brazen information warfare—against the United States. And Michael Cohen’s historic and dramatic congressional testimony on Wednesday yielded new leads in this regard.
It’s already been demonstrated that Trump and his lieutenants possessed private knowledge that the Kremlin wanted to secretly assist the Trump effort during the campaign. In early June 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner—Trump’s top three campaign advisers—met in Trump Tower with a Russian emissary after being told she would deliver them dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a Moscow plot to help Trump. Two months later, Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, received a briefing from the US intelligence community in which he was told US analysts had concluded Moscow was behind the hack-and-dump attacks targeting Democrats. And from mid-June on, there were many media reports noting that cybersecurity experts and US intelligence agencies had fingered Russia as the culprit in the cyber break-in of the Democratic National Committee.
Yet throughout the campaign, the Trump team consistently declared in public that there was no reason to blame the Kremlin. (These denials prompted other Republicans, notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, to say little or nothing about the Russian attack.) Cohen’s testimony offered further reason to believe that Trump knew—or should have known—he was lying when he said Russia was not attacking the US election.
..............
Throughout the hearing, Republican members of the committee, who fixated on discrediting Cohen, showed not a scintilla of concern that during the 2016 campaign Trump misled the public about both the Russian attack and his own private dealing in Russia. And Trump defenders will certainly latch onto Cohen’s assertion that he witnessed no clear evidence of direct collusion. But Cohen, who repeatedly acknowledged he had previously lied to Congress, offered testimony that buttressed a core component of the Trump-Russia scandal: Trump helped Putin’s cover-up. And that’s a crucial part of the story that should not be allowed to get lost.
MORE:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/how-cohens-testimony-backs-up-the-case-that-trump-helped-russia-attack-the-2016-election/
February 27, 2019
Repubs Aren't Upset Cohen Lied To Congress For Potus-They're Upset that He Stopped Lying for Potus
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin says the Republicans aren't upset that Cohen lied to Congress for the president, "they're upset that you've stopped lying to Congress for the president."
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1100816156796047361
February 27, 2019
This was done on behalf of Trump.
@jonswaine
Here's a letter Michael Cohen wrote to Fordham University a month before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, threatening them with legal action if they released Trump's college records. Includes a remarkable P.S.
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1100797554088910849
Wow. Cohen threatened the university with a "loss of government aid and other funding"!
This was done on behalf of Trump.
@jonswaine
Here's a letter Michael Cohen wrote to Fordham University a month before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, threatening them with legal action if they released Trump's college records. Includes a remarkable P.S.
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1100797554088910849
February 27, 2019
@gtconway3d
They are disgracing themselves forever on the pages of history. And for what?
@sbg1
How will these GOP defenses of President Trump sound a couple decades from now? Trying to imagine what these members of Congress will tell their grandkids about this moment...
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1100793315694465024
George Conway: They are disgracing themselves forever on the pages of history. And for what?
@gtconway3d
They are disgracing themselves forever on the pages of history. And for what?
@sbg1
How will these GOP defenses of President Trump sound a couple decades from now? Trying to imagine what these members of Congress will tell their grandkids about this moment...
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1100793315694465024
February 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/986061951859118081
John Fugelsang: Sean Hannity reminds you:
Michael Cohen wasn't his lawyer
But he still expects attorney-client privilege.
And he has nothing to hide
But he ordered MC not to reveal him.
And He defended MC all week
But now MC's a liar.
And that's why Hillary Clinton must be stopped.
https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/986061951859118081
February 27, 2019
?w=600&h=667
https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-kim-jong-un-cartoon/
THIS is genius:
?w=600&h=667
https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-kim-jong-un-cartoon/
February 27, 2019
@DonaldJTrumpJr
Only Democrats could hate someone so much that they would try to disrupt nuclear peace talks with testimony from a convicted felon.
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1100760040401784832
Charles Pierce: "Lawyer up, Sluggo"
@DonaldJTrumpJr
Only Democrats could hate someone so much that they would try to disrupt nuclear peace talks with testimony from a convicted felon.
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1100760040401784832
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