NYT: Intelligence officials say Russia trying to get Trump reelected for 2020 (AGAIN)

@Jacanuk: the reason no one (at least those with a brain or not blinded by pure partisanship) would believeTrump is because they know he is a pathological liar, as he’s proven.

Cleaned up some spam. Any other threads that needs a clean up?

@npiet1 "He can do it if he wants to he is the president"

lol KING TRUMP KING TRUMP KING TRUMP!

Just when I start getting pissed at the democratic supporters for being rabid liberal Bernie Bros, a Trumpette comes in and starts licking boots.

Thanks for keeping things balanced.

Totally frightening that anyone thinks that way about any president. Washington picked title president because he didn't want even the appearance of king.

Depends on if Putin is going to go all in on Bernie or Trump in the General Election. It depends on if Bernie will fire his DNI and call it all a Republican Hoax.

The ICA's latest briefing suggests the interference will be for Trump in the actual GE, like it was in 2016. While we can debate on which side they want to win more this time around, It's good we both agree it's bad no matter which side they do it for. It's good we both agree with the ICA this time.

My other issue is, why did Trump fire the DNI over this report and call it a Democratic Hoax? Perhaps you can answer this for me.

If Bernie denied it I'd call him out on that ITT. There is no question about that. But he didn't.

So now that we got the hypothetical out of the way, lets talk about what literally happened. What are you thoughts on Bernie accepting IC data and Trump thinking it's fake and firing the DNI?

Trump's new intel chief makes immediate changes, ousts top official

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/484154-trumps-new-intel-chief-makes-immediate-changes-ousts-top-official

One hire is Kashyap Patel, a senior member of the National Security Council and former top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the former House Intelligence Committee chairman. Patel was a lead author of a 2018 memo that accused FBI and Justice Department officials under former President Obama of overstepping their surveillance authority ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Patel has reportedly been given permission to "clean house" at the agency.

Well that escalated quickly.

It really is. Even worse when they consider it patriotic (it's not, it is nationalism, which is not good).

And yeah, we don't want kings, emperors, or tyrants here. The patriotic thing is to question our leadership, not obey them.

I think this all provides smokescreen for the country that has the most to gain by Trump being reelected, Israel.

You and Democrats will lose your mind after he is reelected blaming Russia, when really Israel will have a far greater impact and influence on this election.

I think more people feel that way than is comforting to humor.

My father, who I mention on here a lot and is one of those die hard, MAGA hat wearing inside the house, "Yes, he is your president" T-shirt wearing, Fox News on 8+ hours a day types, has told me he doesn't care if Trump breaks the law as long as it's for the best interests of our country.

He's not even an American, he's an ideological hack and traitor, but he doesn't care. As long as it's in his best interests as a conservative, the law, the Constitution....they're irrelevant. I can't tell you how depressing it's been to find this out about those close to me. But I suspect deep down, many Trump supporters feel the same.

It’s incredible how the Russians give the US a hard time with their bot farms and concerted trolling efforts. Russia is mostly a fail state at this point being entirely propped up by gas oligarchs and Putin’s war machine. Yet they punch way above their weight and even have the US President essentially kissing Putin’s ring. Unreal stuff.

Bernie bros have plenty of rage, that's for sure. They're angry at everything.

@zaryia: Because they investigated Trump for collusion in which he was found not guilty. The media ran with with this story for nearly two years trying to act as if DT was corroborating with Russia.

So alot of their comments and accusations were proven to be false.

But the briefing wasn't about collusion. Reports only state the DNI/ICA discussed interference for 2020. Interference, as we know, happened in 2016.

So why did Trump call it a Democratic Hoax and fire the DNI?

Not as rage fueled as conservatives. Unite the Right was nastier than anything I've seen from Bernie bros, as is the whole 80%+ of Domestic Terror being from the far right. Both can be bad though, no doubt.

But that's for another thread please.

Have you not been paying attention for the past four years???

Because Trump views anything Russia as a partisan attempt to deligitimize his presidency, this is not hard to understand. I don't know why you continue to act befuddled and clueless as to this. ANYTHING Russia, Trump will attribute to Democrats.

I think that considering the political climate today, it´s a for Trump a damned if you do and damned if you don´t

And for Bernie it´s a win-win-win situation, he could deny it and call it fake and as I said no one would care, he can acknowledge it and no one would care and he would be hailed for it.

Problem with that statement is that you cannot prove it, is he a trustworthy person, no not really and he may be telling the truth so unless you can prove it factually wrong, then you can´t just assume a lie.

I don't see how Trump would be "damned" by not lying about the briefing and firing the DNI.

Do you think it was a smart move for him to fire the DNI over this and lie about the information calling it a "Democrat hoax"?

As a generalization it holds, and in specifics it can, in fact, be proven.

He would be damned by other Republicans. That's what Jacanuk is saying. Trump has to continue telling these lies. Moscow Mitch depends on Trump calling this a lie. Otherwise, how would it look when he keeps bills about election security on his desk and not to be voted on in the senate?

Yes I know the Republicans can easily replace Moscow Mitch. But as his seat is safe, he can take heat, if any, for blocking bills.

Of course you don´t , you are looking at this from the prosecutions side.

As to the firing, probably not but if Maguire did not follow the normal procedure and allowed for discourse, then i do get it.

Yes, but not always so you can´t assume anything.

No, i meant damned as in democrats and opponents to Trump would use it as a " i told ya so"

From everything we know, he did.

Do you like that he called the information a Democrat Hoax?

I see. Makes sense sort of. Still bad behavior.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but no surprise when it's their shtick to be obsessed over Trump (along with many others on the interwebs). The funny part about this story since it has blown up (but won't keep steam), is that the report by Pierson used the words "preference for the incumbent" a few times. No evidence of any interference, mind you, and of course Trump finds disagreement over this because in his words, why is it that I'm hearing about this from a congressman, from Devin Nunes? Why didn't I hear it first from my own intelligence aides?

Whoops.

Just to be clear for anyone joining as I do not want anyone to be confused or mis-informed, we have no clue what the two posters I just quoted are talking about.

This information was not from the media or Trumps opponents. It was from the Intel Community. The same ones who accurately told us Russia interfered in 2016 to help Trump. Trump is denying what they said, and fired their Director after this information was given.

But that's normal practice. These kinds of briefings don't give deep evidence. They give a shorter assessment. What you are expecting is abnormal and atypical.

Odd. So do you agree with Trump that this information from the Intelligence Community is a "Democratic Hoax" and a "misinformation campaign"?

I guess I'm wondering if you believe those blatant lies?

If the IC assessment is correct, it will keep steam. Just like the 2016 Pro-Trump interference kept steam. Important stories on pressing concerns usually stay around.

Interesting take, by one of our Heroes:

‘We should be very afraid’: Admiral who oversaw Bin Laden raid hits out at Trump over sacking of intelligence chief

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/william-mcraven-trump-joe-maguire-intelligence-a9352486.html?utm_source=reddit.com

In a searing op-ed, the former head of US Special Operations Command, who supervised the 2011 Navy Seal raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, has slammed Donald Trump’s reckless attitude towards the intelligence community saying that Americans should be afraid of the president’s actions.

Retired navy admiral William McRaven, writing in The Washington Post about the dismissal of director of national intelligenceJoe Maguire, decries the fact that Mr Maguire was apparently ousted simply for doing his job – the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials.

He writes: “As Americans, we should be frightened – deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security – then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”

Admiral McRaven opens with the famous quote from Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

He lists the good men and women that have come and gone in the Trump administration: Jim Mattis, John Kelly, HR McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats, and now Joe Maguire, and later mournfully says that “in this administration, good men and women don’t last long”.

@mrbojangles25: you missed the point. He's legally allowed to do it.

No, I got that point (you made it pretty obvious), but I'm afraid you're missing the point: being allowed to do something does not mean he should do it.

Russia interfered in 2016 and is doing so again in 2020. Stop trying to change the narrative.

The narrative is manufactured to obfuscate the truth.

You will blame Russia for interfering when Israel had more impact on the 2016 election and will have more of an impact on the 2020 election.

The proof is in the pudding. Trump's administration has done everything Israel wanted them to do.

They moved the embassy to Jerusalem.

They support Israel's sovereignty of the Golan Heights. They even named a settlement in Golan after Trump, Trump Heights.

They assassinated Qasem Soleimani who has long been a thorn in Israel's side.

They said that West Banks settlements do not violate international law.

At this point it is obvious but because you bought in so hard on this propaganda you can't let go. Israel is the one who benefitted from Trump's presidency not Russia.

Both are bad.

Why not? Politics is a game for them, so let them play.

Acknowledging it means also casting a shadow of doubt on his win in 2016.

If that is your definition of damned, then acknowledging anything that you were previously wrong on means that you will be damned.

"Nice" defence for those who will never admit to mistakes or being wrong.

Anybody the DNC doesn’t want is being backed by the Russians. You people gobble this shit up and it’s hilarious.

Because it's win-win for them, and lose-lose for us.

They don't pay the price. We foot the bill. We are the ones who fight their battles, pay for their projects, are sent to wars they start, and so on.

Again, Trump is not a king, politicians are not royalty. We are not serfs that exist to let them play their games. This isn't Game of Thrones where a select few are all that matter.

I think it is very telling that you think of politics as a "game" when in reality it's public service; these people should be working their asses off to serve us, they should be working together and not against eachother to make this country better.

This thread posts an article on Russian interference on U.S. elections and trying to elect certain officials, according to officials who work in intelligence.

Trumpettes post rebuttals not related to the article but attack the poster because they're.... dumb. Or something. I don't know. I guess the truth hurts or something. I guess there aren't any actual rebuttals.

He's the president of the U.S. and a controversial figure due to his actions and statements. Trump is denying it. Bernie accepted it.

But please try harder, I almost laughed.

Are you suggesting the Intel Agencies are working with the DNC in 2016 and 2020?

Can you back this claim up?

What's more funny is that Bernie is pretending to be outraged at muh Russians in order to placate the DNC.

And even more funny is that our Commander-in-Chief apparently didn't even know about this. He learned about it when we did. GG federal government.