[I]ntelligence agencies do not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin “directing” the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks, a second senior U.S. official said. Those actors, according to the official, were “one step” removed from the Russian government, rather than government employees.
So technically the CIA has no evidence that the Russian Government was actually involved in any hacking. All they have is the fact that some of the hacking (associated with the wikileaks of DNC and John Podesta emails) was likely done out of Russia.Moreover, without solid evidence that the Russian Government itself was even involved, it's pretty difficult to suggest that the CIA can decipher any sort of motive to the hacking. So the concept that the Russians did so to help Trump win the Presidency is little more than National Inquirer style reporting (or fake news as it is called today).
Secondly, the FBI is on record as holding an alternate viewpoint. The FBI intends that while some of the hacking probably came out of Russia, there is not enough evidence to support the broader claim that it was the Government who pulled the strings or that there was any specific motivation to help Donald Trump.
As pointed out by the Powerline blog this morning, this disagreement likely stems from the fact that the FBI is used to having to actually "prove" an allegation before making it. The CIA is openly citing the "opinion" of some agents who are under no obligation to "prove" anything. When you use the term "consensus" to describe your findings, it's clear that there was no actual concrete "evidence". Otherwise you would have seen the CIA replace the wording regarding "consensus" with wording regarding "evidence".
89 comments:
When asked why he doesn't take the daily intelligence briefings.
He also indicated that as president, he would not take the daily intelligence briefing that President Obama and his predecessors have received. Mr. Trump, who has received the briefing sparingly as president-elect, said that it was often repetitive and that he would take it “when I need it.” He said his vice president, Mike Pence, would receive the daily briefing.
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person,” he said. “I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”
______________________________________________________
The President Elect is going to be the commander in chief, and is responsible for defending the country, and in order to do that, the President must be informed by the intelligence professionals. The President has to make life and death decisions. If the President does not know what is going on, how can we feel good about him making those decisions?
The Trumptersheartedtruth people find no problem with this. I have wonder if they are rational for not having a problem with this. It looks like a case of cognitive dissonance. Telling them the truth, just won't penetrate the helmets that keep their minds safe.
Thomas Paine Had Tremendous Fore Sight.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason, is like administering medicine to the dead.
Well Trump is showing the same characteristic of all highly intelligent people.
Impatience with reduncies.
And you still don't get the delicious irony every time you use that quote.
Subconscious projection is very much a characteristic of you.
Odds are, that per the intelligence tests, I would score higher than Trump. By your "logic" I'm qualified to be President.
i wouldn't be so arrogant to think I know more than the experts, especially if I had no background in such important life and death decisions.
You proved my point.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason, is like administering medicine to the dead.
Odds are, that per the intelligence tests, I would score higher than Trump.
with all due respect...
I'd take those odds...
HB, no your not,,, not healthy enough, surly not smart enough and you have zero work skills, no management abilities and less then below bottom financial knowledge.
And that is the short list.
The President Elect will have his own security briefings with his own security team when he becomes President.
At this point, our current President has the CIA chasing down conspiracies about the Russians being in cahoots with Trump regarding the election. I am not surprised Trump doesn't hold much interest in being involved.
Would you?
"We have a far better economic policies for the middle-class than the Republicans." The Mutt
Nope, and you have failed to post that plan, and that in part is why HER lost.
ISIS the JV TEAM. outgoing prez pimp that ride
Hillary has told her inside big donors that she is giving up on the Recount.
Biden said SHE is the leadership of the Dem party going forward.
Question medically is she healthy enough to make it to 2020 and run again.
The National Review.
Some people have the quaint idea that Trump should release his tax returns. I wouldn’t wait up nights on this one. But I was thinking of something else: What about his IQ returns? Trump makes a lot of IQ. Haven’t the champions of liberal democracy always done that? Anyway, he says things like, “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure,it’s not your fault.” The Republican presidential nominee tweeted that, and I have preserved his characteristic punctuation. As for feeling “stupid or insecure” — I think that psychiatrists speak of projection. Or is it transference? Trump also tweeted, “I know some of you may think I’m tough and harsh but actually I’m a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense.” Thanks for the parenthetical, big guy. Since he makes so much of IQ, and boasts that his “is one of the highest,” maybe Trump should take a test? An IQ test? And release the results? Maybe in lieu of tax returns?
Buyer, beware. Voter, beware. America, beware.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437133/donald-trump-his-very-high-iq-one-highest
Unless he can score 140 to tie, odds are on my side.
"We have a far better economic policies for the middle-class than the Republicans." The Mutt
Nope
Further more , when the new lower tax rates and higher personal deductions are the law of the land, be sure to pay in what you do now, because you don't want to be beholding to TRUMP .
Right old sick HB.
Strange link coming from you Roger when you considered that Obama's college transcripts were irrelevant to his qualification for president.
Well, maybe not so strange.
Hypocrisy --- bedrock --- liberalism
I thought he should have released them. But compared to your belief that Obama was born in Kenya was more important, so you have no place to stand.
Hypocritical Republicans
That's a helluva product the Rams have.............l
The Rams suck.
But Trump is fucking scary. Via Drudge.
In interviews with several former intelligence officials and others connected to that community in recent days, POLITICO found a deep wariness of what a Trump presidency will mean.
The vast majority of people who work for intelligence agencies are career professionals deeply averse to the politicization of intelligence; there's also a deep and long-running suspicion of Russia in the intelligence community that Trump is unlikely to root out.
Amy Jeffress, a former Department of Justice official, told POLITICO that she's been in touch with intelligence community officials to discuss the challenge ahead.
"They don’t like the president-elect’s criticism and are even more concerned that he is skipping his intelligence briefings," Jeffress said. “The new administration will need to reassure the career professionals, who of course include Democrats and Republicans, that they will not misuse or politicize their work.”
The question of the intelligence briefings is one that some analysts are more worried about than others.
Most recent presidents-elect have welcomed the in-person daily briefings by intelligence officials as an opportunity to verse themselves in the threats facing the United States before they take office. Trump is reportedly receiving at most one such verbal briefing a week.
Meanwhile, it's not clear if Trump is reading the President's Daily Brief, the written, top secret document produced every day by the intelligence community for the serving president and designated aides and which also is available to presidents-elect. Trump transition officials did not respond to questions about whether Trump is reading the written document and how many in-person briefings he has received.
In the case of Nixon, the CIA could not convince him to take a single face-to-face briefing during his transition to the presidency, according to David Priess, a former intelligence official and author of "The President's Book of Secrets." The CIA delivered Nixon's team the written daily brief every day, but at the end of the transition period, those envelopes were all returned unopened, Priess said.
Once Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, he might feel compelled to pay more heed to intelligence issues. But already people connected to the spy world are wondering if they'll need to radically alter the way they present the information to a man known to have a very short attention span and a dislike of reading.
Trump's favored mode of communication appears to be Twitter, and he's known to watch cable news regularly. He's said in the past that he's learned a lot about military affairs by watching cable shows. People familiar with his reading habits have told POLITICO he likes information delivered in "short and staccato" bursts.
The vast majority of people who work for intelligence agencies are career professionals deeply averse to the politicization of intelligence;
WASHINGTON — Officials from the United States Central Command altered intelligence reports to portray a more optimistic picture of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria than events on the ground warranted, a congressional panel said in a report issued Thursday.
TDS
lol
CH is a hockey fan, but his Vikings are having a pretty good year without one of the best running backs in football.
Since both Republicans and Democrats think we should follow up on the Russian hack, we should. The Trump camp hates it, but probably because they were involved at least at some level. Impeachment before he's sworn in?
I'm living in a Twilight Zone episode. The media, Republicans, Trump and his supporters expected us to believe any manner of lies told about Hillary Clinton from Putin's puppet Julian Assange without a lick of evidence. Except what he claimed was hacked from Podesta and others computers.
with all due respect...
I'd take those odds...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
same here.
on the one hand we have a billionaire wharton grad, and on the other a drunk with liver failure and a mortgage... at 65 years old.
At this point, our current President has the CIA chasing down conspiracies about the Russians being in cahoots with Trump regarding the election. I am not surprised Trump doesn't hold much interest in being involved.
Would you?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
the current regime has been an abject failure on the foreign policy & terrorism front.
trump would be a fool to take a briefing from this cavalcade of asshats.
Trump and his supporters expected us to believe any manner of lies told about Hillary Clinton from Putin's puppet Julian Assange without a lick of evidence
What lies would those be? All Assange did was make email exchanges from the DNC and Podesta's account public.
And nobody has denied the authenticity of those emails.
on the other a drunk with liver failure and a mortgage... at 65 years old."
Don't forget how wealthy he and his wife are, they make well north of 6 figures, yet, in his words;
"The total bill was $162,000. I would have been bankrupt " HB
HB is The lover of Hillary's Fake News Machine.
However, when Biden was asked who are the leaders of the Dems, well, Biden dropped both Bill the Rapist and Hillary the Loser,,,,,
Here's what Hillary told Dateline in November 2001:
She'd gone, what she thought would be just a great jog. She was going to go down to Battery Park, she was going to go around the towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and -- and that's when the plane hit."
nope, fake news, see the millionaire Chelsea when asked , said she was no where near the towers, but, then again, IF a Clinton Said it, it is Fake news, like the little girl that got by US Secret Service line of containment , as Hillary exited Chelseas apartment after Hillary took ill ,,,, remember that fake news , staged event, that little girl wished for Hillary to feel better.
Right, or how about when Hillary and bill the rapist arranged stones on the beach, and the press just happened to catch that moment of true love.
Trump and his supporters expected us to believe any manner of lies told about Hillary Clinton from Putin's puppet Julian Assange without a lick of evidence" The Mutt
What lies would those be?" CS
This is going to be great, IF he answers which HB rarely does.
So we are to believe that Debbie Was a Man Schultz quit "without a lick of evidence"
And that Donna Brazillia did not feed questions to Hillary pre debat
es.
CNN""We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign," a spokesperson said."
CNN fired her, again "without a lick of evidence"
authenticity of those "purloined" emails. That were never confirmed being real either, menstral child.
"Never confirmed" Yet, those within the Clinton Camp and DNC "Fired" people over those very emails.
Why would they do such a thing to their own?
an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ryan clearly sympathized with the Sanders supporters and sounded off on the Democratic Party’s bias.
“Yeah, and again, no one’s apologizing for that, and I hope, you know, those people, whoever participated or made those comments, are gone," Ryan said. "They need to be cut. You need to get rid of them immediately. And it’s not making an excuse. They should leave. It’s inappropriate.”
Ryan is one of many Democrats condemning the DNC’s behavior. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has gone even further than Ryan, demanding all DNC staffers be let go."
"Never confirmed" Opium a true blue Hillary election Denier
"without a lick of evidence" HB,, another election Denier
So The Sanders voters had it wrong too.
OMG, how self obsorbed do you have to be to think only Hillary has it Right and everyone else has it so very, very wrong.
Climate deniers permeate the new administration in spite of the science saying otherwise.
Dig we must....
Oliver Milman
The heads of Donald Trump’s transition teams for Nasa, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy, as well as his nominees to lead the EPA and the Department of the Interior, all question the science of human-caused climate change, in a signal of the president-elect’s determination to embark upon an aggressively pro-fossil fuels agenda.
Trump has assembled a transition team in which at least nine senior members deny basic scientific
understanding that the planet is warming due to the burning of carbon and other human activity. These include the transition heads of all the key agencies responsible for either monitoring or dealing with climate change. None of these transition heads have any background in climate science.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/12/donOliver Milman@olliemilman
That were never confirmed being real either, menstral child.
Somebody tell Donna Brazile.
idiot
It is required that you attempt to go off topic, as you have lost this debate and others so completely.
The election is over, Trump won and with that your ideas were defeated.
As for the lack of evidence that the emails were real, ok, let us say they are all fake. 100 % fabrication.
Then we can now look at how they effected the Democrats:
Resigned over them,,, DNC Chair and rising star DebbiewasaMANSchults.
Fired Donna leaker Brazilla
Pissed off on masse Sanders Supporters.
To believe HB and Opium, we have to believe those people are too stupid to know the difference between real and fantasy.
Election Deniers got crayons and color books and baby safety pins, it is going to get much worse for you in 2018.
US Senate the Dems are having defend 25 seats. Republicans just a hand full and most of them are solidly safe seats.
Somebody tell Donna Brazil.
Tell her what?
Thanx for playing, Paulie.
The Clinton campaign has not authenticated the e-mails.
Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/news-views/donna-brazile-cnn-wikileaks#ixzz4SdOBlbuX
Follow us: @EbonyMag on Twitter | EbonyMag on Facebook
Donna Brazile, the acting chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, resigned from her role as a CNN contributor earlier this month.
Her departure was announced Monday amid fresh revelations that she sent questions to Hillary Clinton's campaign in advance of a CNN debate and a CNN-TV One town hall.
In a statement, CNN said it was "completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor."
CNN said it "never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate."
Brazile resigned from the network on October 14, three days after Wikileaks released an email in which Brazile says she got advance questions before a town hall event. "From time to time I get the questions in advance," she wrote in the email.
so Brazile is out because of unconfirmed email leaks
You aren't very bright, fatty
BREAKING: Judge Gives Blistering Order Denying Jill Stein’s Pennsylvania Recount Request
What lies would those be? All Assange did was make email exchanges from the DNC and Podesta's account public.
And nobody has denied the authenticity of those emails.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
assange himself has not given russia the credit for the hacking. he's camped out in an ecuadorian, not russian embassy.
REMEMBER WHEN THE RUSSIANS HACKED THE WHITE HOUSE’S COMPUTERS?
You probably don’t. We broke the story on Power Line in October 2014, writing about it here, here, here, here, here and here. The White House’s computers were down for weeks because of the intrusion by a “foreign power,” which the administration finally identified as Russia. It wasn’t just the White House, either; it was the entire Executive Office of the President, which comprises a good chunk of the executive branch. Nor was that all: the State Department’s computer system was hacked, too.
While we pounded away at the story, the White House refused to respond to our inquiries. The Washington press corps, which must have known that the White House’s computers were out of action, maintained a discreet silence, declining to write about the Russian hack, even though many D.C. reporters no doubt followed the story on Power Line. Why the coy silence? Because it was October 2014, weeks before the midterm elections, and the story reflected poorly on the Obama administration, which didn’t even discover the intrusion itself. It turned out that American officials were alerted to the Russian hack of the White House and State Department by an unidentified ally (I’m guessing Israel).
Only when the election was safely over did news outlets like CNN report the story (“How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House”). Throughout, the Obama administration minimized the story, claiming that no harm was done and only unclassified material was accessed–an excuse that, as CNN wrote post-election, “belies the seriousness of the intrusion.”
Now, the same news outlets that refused to cover the Russian government’s hacking into White House and State Department computers and email systems try to tell us that an intrusion into Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s and John Podesta’s email accounts by someone–allegedly the same Russian government–is a story of world-historical importance. What a load of bulls–t.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/12/remember-when-the-russians-hacked-the-white-houses-computers.php
fake news update -
the ny times just hired a self-described hack to cover the white house:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glenn-thrush-new-york-times_us_5845bc45e4b055b3139895b1
so Brazile is out because of unconfirmed email leaks
No numbnutz....her leaking debate questions to to hillary. Learn to read the story, not the cherry picked part that supports your BS. Thanx for once again proving you know shit. LOL
And fatty how do we know she leaked questions? Oh yeah her hacked emails.
Fucking retard, smoke another bowl and shove another pie in your face
Sorry Trump lovers.
McConnell is backing an investigation!!!!!!!!
#impeachmentbeforeinauguration!
Sen. Mitch McConnell announced Monday he backs a congressional probe into possible Russian interference in the U.S. election, but he said it would be handled by individual committees rather than a commission.
The intelligence community believes Russia was engaged in election-related hacking in order to benefit President-elect Trump.
McConnell, the majority leader, also condemned any move to politicize the intelligence related to Russian hacking, declining to reveal whether he believes there is any truth to reports that the country acted to help Trump.
"We are going to follow the regular order process," the Kentucky Republican said. "It's an important subject and we are going to do it on a bipartisan basis."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mcconnell-backs-russia-hacking-probe-but-no-commission/article/2609411
so mitch is willing to stage some kabuki theatre for the low info nimrods out there.
have you ever frustrated a kitten with a piece of string?
same thing.
LOL.
have fun roger.
According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.
Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow’s hands.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_russiahack-745p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_&utm_term=.f08f3c116e3b
so mitch will pay lip service to this until inauguration day.
then it will be dropped.
merry fitzmas!!!
"I can't spell but have a Genius level IQ" dude thinks that some foreign agents hacking into DNC and Clinton Emails should get "Trump impeached".
IQ drops another 10 points.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday said he supports an investigation into Russian interference in November's presidential election, but did not back calls for a special investigative panel into CIA findings that Moscow meddled in order to sway the contest in Donald Trump's favor.
At a Capitol Hill press conference, McConnell, R-Ky., called the indication that Russia had interfered in the election "disturbing," and joined with colleagues in the Senate in urging any investigation to remain a bipartisan effort.
"Obviously any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing, and I strongly condemn any such efforts," he said. "It's an important subject and we intend to review it on a bipartisan basis."
RELATED CONTENT
The Associated Press
Trump rejects intel, lawmakers vow probe of Russia hacking
McConnell broke with tradition at his annual year-end conference, usually devoted to lauding the majority party's efforts in the Senate for the past year. He read a statement directly addressing reports that intelligence officials had concluded with "high confidence" that Russia had worked to promote Trump's election.
Over the weekend, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber's incoming minority leader, joined with Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., as well as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, in calling for a congressional investigation in response to reports of the CIA's findings.
"Congress's national security committees have worked diligently to address the complex challenge of cybersecurity, but recent events show that more must be done," the bipartisan group said in a statement Sunday. "While protecting classified material, we have an obligation to inform the public about recent cyberattacks that have cut to the heart of our free society. Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks."
"We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security," they added.
Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, McCain said he ideally would like a select committee to investigate the reported Russian meddling, though he acknowledged such an effort would take "a long time" and involve "a lot of negotiating."
RELATED CONTENT
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson shake hands at a signing ceremony of an agreement between state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft and Exxon Mobil corporation Friday, June 15, 2012, at the Black Sea port of Tuapse in southern Russia.
Alarm Over The Russia Connection
In the meantime, he said, Graham will be asked to head an investigative Senate Armed Services subcommittee, paired with "a really smart Democrat."
"We will go to work on it," McCain said. "We will go to work immediately, because the issue of cyber is not a static issue."
McConnell, meanwhile, said the Senate would "follow the regular order" in a Russia-related probe, and that the Senate intelligence committee is "more than capable of conducting a complete review of this matter."
He is playing word games, but look out Trumpeters!
If Trump was aware and supportive of the Russian hackers, your IQ will drop to the rrb level!
McConnell, meanwhile, said the Senate would "follow the regular order" in a Russia-related probe, and that the Senate intelligence committee is "more than capable of conducting a complete review of this matter."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
let me help you out here, mr. IQ.
the entire capitol is just a couple days away from clearing out for the holidays. and they won't be back until just before the inauguration. then PRESIDENT TRUMP gets sworn in. at which point this entire fake news non-issue becomes as moot as 0linsky's legacy.
MERRY FITZMAS!!!11!
If Trump was aware and supportive of the Russian hackers
Just like Trump was afraid of the Recounts, because they would prove how the vote counts were hacked by the Russians.
The fact you really believe this stuff, Roger... is more than a little pathetic.
"We have a far better economic policies for the middle-class than the Republicans." The Mutt
Nope
Further more , when the new lower tax rates and higher personal deductions are the law of the land, be sure to pay in what you do now, because you don't want to be beholding to TRUMP .
Right old sick HB.
HB, I know why you made that statement and then have spent 9 days running from it.
In this news conference he repudiates every claim made on the CHT 2.0 TrumpFestival.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/mcconnell-supports-inquiry-of-russian-hacking-during-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
The New York Times
He wants a full investigation on the Russian attempts to influence the national election and also takes a shot at Trump, who is trying every way possible to stop any investigation. He is calling the CIA political and incompetent.
Senate and House Republican Leaders Call for An Inquiry Into The Russian Hacking In Election.
WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said on Monday that he supported congressional investigations of possible Russian cyberattacks to influence the American election, setting up a potential conflict with President-elect Donald J. Trump in the early days of his administration.
Mr. McConnell’s support for investigations is a major moment for the Republican-controlled Congress given that Mr. Trump has ridiculed and dismissed the findings of the American intelligence community that the Russians hacked the election.
The investigation, which will be driven by Senator Richard M. Burr, of North Carolina, the chairman of the intelligence committee, and by Senator John McCain, of Arizona, the chairman of the armed services committee, could last for months or more at the start of the new Trump administration. Many of the intelligence committee hearings will most likely be behind closed doors, but they will still generate wide interest.
Mr. McConnell stopped short of calling for a special select committee to investigate the claims of Russian hacking, saying that the inquiries could be conducted through normal committee channels. He also stopped short of saying whether he agreed that Russia interfered in the election in support of Mr. Trump. He repeatedly declined to address the president-elect’s attack on the Central Intelligence Agency.
Noting that “the Russians are not our friends,” Mr. McConnell said that he “strongly condemns” foreign hacking and that the Senate intelligence committee was “more than capable of conducting a complete review” of the matter. “We need to approach all these on the assumption the Russians do not wish us well,” he said.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan, in a statement, was even more forceful and said he supported an investigation in the House as well. “As I’ve said before, any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable. And any intervention by Russia is especially problematic because, under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor that consistently undermines American interests,” the statement said.
Mr. McCain said on Monday that there was “no doubt about the hacking” by Russian intelligence services and called for a wide-ranging investigation by congressional committees into Russian meddling.
Mr. McCain called hacking of the Democratic National Committee and related accounts “another form of warfare” in an appearance on Monday on “CBS This Morning” with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming Democratic leader.
Mr. McConnell, resolute in his silence on Mr. Trump for most of the campaign, now faces bipartisan pressure to take a stand on Russia’s interference in the election.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida have both expressed concern about the reports of cyberattacks, as have numerous Democrats.
“Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState” Mr. Rubio wrote in a post on Twitter, an apparent reference to Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, who is considered the front-runner to be Mr. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state.
Well HB... maybe they can put Trey Gowdy in charge.
Then Democrats can show the world that they are not hypocritical as they attack him for the same reasons they attacked him for investigating the Email situation. That the issue was already investigated by the FBI, and other intelligence agencies, and that Congressional investigations would be nothing more than political grandstanding.
What's the difference (in your mind)?
Me, I could care less what Congress decides to investigate on this matter. I don't believe for a second that they will uncover anything missed by the FBI or the CIA... and I don't believe at the end of the day that it does anything long term but remind people (right, wrong, or indifferent) the inherent political nature of Congress.
I have the full post including the McConnell press conference, where he takes a shot at Trump. The Trumpets here don't want to hear the truth, they think he's the most honest and competent man to have ever been elected, even if he lost by 2,800,000 votes he has a mandate to fuck the United States up the ass.
As usual the racist rat rodent put his ridiculous and worthless post that will only get 20 visits from the Twit who loves the bastard.
PBS again shows the alleged high IQ denied the Republicans are going to investigate The Trumpet.
President-elect Donald Trump is facing an early test with fellow Republicans over U.S. relations with Russia, as lawmakers seek to investigate a CIA assessment that Russia interfered in the November election and issue warnings over the incoming president’s potential pick for secretary of state.
Trump said Sunday the recent CIA assertion that Russian hacking had sought to help his candidacy was “ridiculous,” and he praised ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has emerged as the leading contender to lead the State Department.
But two key Senate Republicans — John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading Trump critic — joined with two Democrats in seeking a bipartisan investigation into the Kremlin’s activities during the election. And McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, questioned whether Trump should nominate Tillerson, citing the executive’s longstanding business ties with Moscow.
“It’s a matter of concern to me that he has such a close personal relationship with Vladimir Putin,” McCain said of Tillerson. “And obviously they’ve done enormous deals together.” In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” McCain said, “That would color his approach to Vladimir Putin and the Russian threat,” the announcement said.
Russia expects to figure prominently at the start of a week in which Trump is expected to name more members of his Cabinet, which also has vacancies in the departments of Energy, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.
Trump’s transition team announced Monday that his choice to head the Department of Homeland Security is, as expected, Gen. John Kelly. Kelly is a former commander of U.S. Southern Command with “unique insight into some of the challenges the United States faces at its southern border,” the announcement said.
Trump is also planning a news conference on Thursday to outline how he intends to separate himself from his sprawling business enterprise.
During his campaign, Trump weathered turbulent relations with fellow Republicans but has since forged a more united front with GOP lawmakers since his November victory over Hillary Clinton.
The CIA recently concluded with “high confidence” that Russia sought to influence the U.S. election on behalf of Trump, raising red flags among lawmakers concerned about the sanctity of the U.S. voting system and potentially straining relations at the start of Trump’s administration.
In a wide-ranging interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Trump dismissed those concerns as little more than partisan griping. “I think the Democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country. And frankly, I think they’re putting it out. And it’s ridiculous,” Trump said.
The incoming president said he did not necessarily oppose calls from President Barack Obama for an inquiry into the 2016 campaign hacking but said it should not be solely focused on a single culprit.
“If you’re gonna to do that, I think you should not just say ‘Russia.’ You should say other countries also, and maybe other individuals,” he said. The White House has said the probe would focus on any breaches by other countries along with hacking committed in previous elections.
Trump’s decision-making on whom to select for secretary of state has stretched out over several weeks. He has been considering former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a one-time vocal Trump critic, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who leads the Foreign Relations Committee, and Tillerson, the oil industry executive who met twice with Trump during the past week.
In the television interview, Trump pointed to Tillerson’s deep relations with Moscow as a selling point. As ExxonMobil’s head, he maintained close ties with Russia and was awarded by Putin with the Order of Friendship in 2013, an honor for a foreign citizen.
“A great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company,” Trump said, while also citing Corker and Romney.
“These are all very different types of people,” he said. “But when you ask me about Rex, I mean, he’s a world-class player. There’s no question about it.” By Sunday afternoon, Tillerson had still not been formally offered the job, according to a person with knowledge of the process who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Democrats have warned that plucking Tillerson for State would put the leader of the world’s largest oil company in a pivotal role on issues like climate change and the future of the Keystone XL pipeline. They also question whether he would apply diplomatic pressure on Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the developments “raise serious questions about whether the incoming administration will adequately stand up to Russia’s aggression.”
The prospect of Tillerson also received a cool reception from some Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which would consider his nomination.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the GOP nomination, wrote on Twitter, “Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a (hashtag)SecretaryOfState.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he would reserve judgment. The committee also includes Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a Trump detractor during the campaign.
Russia’s influence has also been seized upon by a small group of Democratic electors who call themselves the “Hamilton Electors” and are trying to persuade electors to back another Republican because they contend Trump is unfit to be president.
Trump won 306 electoral votes in the election, a comfortable margin to make him the next president when the electoral college meets Dec. 19. But the Hamilton Electors want the CIA and FBI to provide more details on Russia’s influence before that date.
What's the difference (in your mind)?
A couple reasons.
One is to see if the CIA and FBI are playing it straight or not,
The other is to see if the Trump campaign worked with Putin on this. If that is true, we could be looking at impeachment for treason.
Odds are against it, but why not? You loved the $20 million dollar investigation into Benghazi that netted zero. I don't remember you criticizing that as a waste of time, but it isn't worth doing it now, because a Republican is possibly being a traitor, no big deal, it's just politics, right Ch?
Trump won 306 electoral votes in the election, a comfortable margin to make him the next president when the electoral college meets Dec. 19. But the Hamilton Electors want the CIA and FBI to provide more details on Russia’s influence before that date.
For someone pretending to be genius level IQ - you certainly rely on others to do your thinking for you.
and btw... the only people he is going to fuck up the ass are the coastal elitists who believe that they should always run the country! They deserve a good ass fucking!
Donald Trump said that the CIA gave the Bush administration that Iraq had nuclear weapons. That is simply not true, and you damn well know it CH. Why don't you call out your Liar Elect on stuff like that?
Oh.. I know (R) is the cure for everything. Gotcha.
The Hamilton electors are not entitled to anything, HB. They are obligated (by law in most cases) to vote for the candidate who won their state.
There is nothing noble or patriotic about not following the law, especially when your reasons for breaking it is that your personal political views do not align with your responsibilities.
Seriously, Roger... first it was the Recount that was supposed to uncover fraud, now it's electors who are blaming the election on Russia? These Hamilton electors are a joke to be laughed at. They should all be wearing Tin Foil Hats.
Roger. This is what he said:
"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction"
Is that not true? Did the CIA not, in fact, provide intelligence that Iraq was harboring WMD?
Look, I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Someone hacked the DNC and Clinton's own campaign manager. Perhaps if they were better at keeping their own house in order (and used a little security), they would not have been hacked. There was nothing within any of those emails that wasn't actually legitimate. These "were" their emails, and if they made them look bad, that's their own problem.
In a way, it's all sort of fitting, isn't it. Clinton may have gotten away "legally" by allowing people to hack our National Security secrets (which nobody on the left seemed to care about). But the same lack of commitment to security allowed more personal political information to get out there, and damage her further.
I find it ironic that people like you cared so very little when it was the National Security information (that put lives in danger) that was hacked. But you care so very much when it's politically damaging to Democrats. You get to own your hypocrisy on that one Roger. You backed someone who was reckless with her private information and it ultimately bit your side in the ass!
How does Russian meddling in any way imply that Trump was working with the Russians? By all accounts they hate Clinton, all the way up to Putin himself.
If anything, it implies an under the table Clinton/Russia connection gone bad. Since you're proposing investigation of Trump with literally no indication of malfeasance, maybe that Clinton angle should be added in?
I bank up my opinions with facts.
CH. You pull them out of your rectum.
Your opinions stink.
There you go again. You quoted Trump's lie. But you have No PROBLEM with it.
"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction"
This is simply untrue. If I could post the YouTube, the former director of the CIA did not tell Bush that Hussein had WMD.
Cheney and company used their lies to get the people and congress to support the invasion of Iraq, not the CIA.
wp, are you buying into Trump's claim that the Clinton campaign worked with the Russians?
wp, are you buying into Trump's claim that the Clinton campaign worked with the Russians?
A flurry of politicians quickly declaring their candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination has meant that the Bush administration’s Iraq War is back in the national conversation. Jeb Bush has been forced to answer for his brother’s mistakes, while others like Marco Rubio have toed the party line — knowing the information that the administration knew at the time, they too would have invaded Iraq.
The thing is, the Iraq War was not the result of an intelligence goof — rather, the country’s top office systematically misled the public about Iraq’s nonexistent WMD program, as well as Saddam Hussein’s link to Al Qaeda.
On Tuesday night, former CIA Deputy Director and Bush’s intelligence briefer Michael Morell appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” where he, under an amount of good cable news duress, admitted that the administration Cheney saying, “We know [Saddam Hussein] has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
“Was that true or not,” host Chris Matthews asked.
“Can you answer that question? Was that true?”
“No, that was not true,” he finally said.
The CIA’s analysis, according to the Times and Post summaries of the CIA’s reasoning, is that the Russians appear to have also hacked computer systems belonging to the Republican Party. But the Democrats’ emails found their way to WikiLeaks, Republican emails stayed under wraps. Was that an agreement between the Russians and the Trump campaign? It would not surprise me one bit.
If these reports are correct, it would be powerful evidence that the Russians weren’t just trying to sow general chaos, they were specifically trying to make Donald Trump, rather than Hillary Clinton, the next president of the United States. And they succeeded in electing a President thinks that he's smart enough to forego intelligence briefings.
This is how Trump pays for the hacking that got him elected.
President-elect Donald Trump will announce on Tuesday that he’s chosen Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, according to reports.
Trump tweeted Monday that he would make an official announcement about his choice on Tuesday morning. The Associated Press and The New York Times report Tillerson is Trump’s pick.
Trump met with Tillerson in New York City on Saturday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday praised Tillerson, who has ties to Russia. Peskov said the CEO acted “highly professional” while working previously with Kremlin representatives on oil company business.
Peskov said Tillerson, who’s been Exxon’s CEO since 2006, has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin “several times.” Putin awarded Tillerson the country’s Order of Friendship in 2013.
Clinton campaign backs call for intelligence briefing before Electoral College vote
By GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI and KYLE CHENEY 12/12/16 12:49 PM EST Updated 12/12/16 01:13 PM EST
Hillary Clinton’s top political adviser John Podesta said the campaign is supporting an effort by members of the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing on foreign intervention in the presidential election.
“The bipartisan electors' letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in a statement Monday. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”
Story Continued Below
“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,” he said. “Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”
Podesta's statement is the first public statement from the Clinton campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of Donald Trump's victory.
It follows an open letter from 10 presidential electors — including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine — requesting an intelligence briefing ahead of the Dec. 19 vote of the Electoral College.
Shortly after Podesta's statement, the Democratic National Committee disseminated a POLITICO story that revealed the electors' call for a briefing. Two Democratic members of Congress have also suggested the Electoral College should take an active role in reassessing — or stopping — a Trump presidency.
One of them, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told POLITICO on Monday that Trump is a "potentially dangerous president."
"It became clear to me last night that this man is not only unqualified to be president, he’s a danger to the republic," Himes said. "I do think the Electoral College should choose someone other than Donald Trump to be president. That will lead to a fascinating legal issue ... but I would rather have a legal problem — a constitutional legal problem -- then to find out the White House was now the Kremlin’s chief ally."
Clinton campaign backs call for intelligence briefing before Electoral College vote
By GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI and KYLE CHENEY 12/12/16 12:49 PM EST Updated 12/12/16 01:13 PM EST
Hillary Clinton’s top political adviser John Podesta said the campaign is supporting an effort by members of the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing on foreign intervention in the presidential election.
“The bipartisan electors' letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in a statement Monday. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”
Story Continued Below
“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,” he said. “Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”
Podesta's statement is the first public statement from the Clinton campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of Donald Trump's victory.
It follows an open letter from 10 presidential electors — including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine — requesting an intelligence briefing ahead of the Dec. 19 vote of the Electoral College.
Shortly after Podesta's statement, the Democratic National Committee disseminated a POLITICO story that revealed the electors' call for a briefing. Two Democratic members of Congress have also suggested the Electoral College should take an active role in reassessing — or stopping — a Trump presidency.
One of them, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told POLITICO on Monday that Trump is a "potentially dangerous president."
"It became clear to me last night that this man is not only unqualified to be president, he’s a danger to the republic," Himes said. "I do think the Electoral College should choose someone other than Donald Trump to be president. That will lead to a fascinating legal issue ... but I would rather have a legal problem — a constitutional legal problem -- then to find out the White House was now the Kremlin’s chief ally."
Former CIA acting director Michael Morell called the intelligence agency’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election to help President-elect Donald Trump “the political equivalent of 9/11.”
“A foreign government messing around in our elections is, I think, an existential threat to our way of life. To me, and this is to me not an overstatement, this is the political equivalent of 9/11,” Morell said in an interview posted Sunday on The Cipher Brief. “It is huge and the fact that it hasn’t gotten more attention from the Obama Administration, Congress, and the mainstream media, is just shocking to me.”
His comments come on the heels of a Washington Post story published Friday that the CIA believes Russia attempted to help Trump when individuals supposedly connected to the Russian government provided WikiLeaks with hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta.
Trump’s transition team blasted the CIA assessment after the report came out, saying that the same people had concluded that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And in an interview with Fox, Trump called allegations that Russia interfered “ridiculous.”
“They have no idea if it's Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace,” he said.
Trump’s incoming chief-of-staff Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway, his senior adviser to the transition team, both later said Trump respects the intelligence community.
Over the weekend, a bipartisan group of senators, including Republican John McCain and incoming Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, called on Congress to investigate the allegations, saying that "this cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country.”
But the blog Trumpets don't care about it because of the (R)
Party over country is the Trumpet way.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/michael-morell-russia-us-elections-232495
Link for above post.
Prediction
Our esteemed host will, if he posts on the subject again on the Russian hackers, will use every argument used by Trump. Despite that McConnell and Ryan called for congressional investigations.
The CIA can't be trusted.
They told Bush that Saddam Hussein had WMD.
He won a mandate.
You can't tell who hacked into the Democratic systems.
You are going to be 'cerifiably insane' in a few short years
And I'm gonna love watching the path.
lol
Actually, I hope that I'm wrong.
But we have a President, Secretary of State and others who have no political or foreign affairs experience in the most important job in the world.
His refusal to get intelligence briefings, and that he has denigrated the intelligence services that he will have to rely on for life and death decisions should definitely disturb you.
I'm afraid that I'm right.
Blogger Roger Amick said...
As usual the racist rat rodent put his ridiculous and worthless post that will only get 20 visits from the Twit who loves the bastard.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
at least my posts can fetch a few comments.
yours?
crickets.
LOL.
and page views?
483.
not a good number for you alky.
But we have a President, Secretary of State and others who have no political or foreign affairs experience in the most important job in the world.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
suddenly political and foreign affairs experience is a requirement?
you mean like military experience was suddenly a requirement when john kerry was 'reporting for doodie?'
0linsky "had a cup of coffee in the senate,"* and the sum total of hillary's experience was being a first lady in charge of bubba's bimbo eruptions.
* thank you howard fineman.
the hypocrisy of the left's 'experience requirements' of GOP leaders is more blinding than looking directly into the sun.
Tillerson's ties to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, after all the hacking issues is going to make his confirmation a more difficult than, let's say Romney. But he will be confirmed.
If our esteemed host was consistent if he found a problem because he believes that climate change is real.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkuyY2FFR7c
John Kerry was a multiple term Senator, who traveled extensively to nations around the world. He served on intelligence Senatorial committees, and foreign affairs committees.
Tillerson is has no political experience, no experience on intelligence efforts around the world, and does have questionable circumstances involving Vladimir Putin.
I'm not going to use ridiculous comments like olinski, an operating brain makes that unnecessary.
John Kerry has a Silver medal for bravery under fire.
rrb has a problem with people who aren't white people of European dissent.
He wants us to leave rotting beaners on the Mexican border.
His bravery is limited to insulting and racist comments, that our esteemed host continues to have posting privileges.
I would MUCH rather have you as President Roger!!! You have a brain, compassion and commonsense. Plus you are a really nice guy. Jeanne Apelseth
The first Facebook candidate for President of the United States of America is Roger l. Amick.
The motto. "Brains, Compassion and Commonsense"
Are we in?
He won a mandate.
Yep... that electoral landslide was 48th over history......I guess mediocrity is great using his logic of what a landslide is.
wp, are you buying into Trump's claim that the Clinton campaign worked with the Russians?
No, it's much more likely that the Clintons' personally had arrangements with Russian entities and the Russians got screwed. That would at least be a plausible explanation of why the Russians despised Clinton so much.
Regardless of the reasons, the reasons that you're using to finger Trump would appear to be more closely associated with Clinton. You allege that meddling must be intended to help Trump, when all evidence suggests that they wanted to sink Clinton. You point at possible Trump business interests in Russia, when the Clinton's have made hundreds of millions from foreign interests, and Clinton has overseen deals with Russia. It's pretty ironic that all of the speculations about Trump's motives apply much more strongly to Clinton, and yet more ironic that you'd ask me about Clinton's campaign working with the Russians, as if Clinton herself would be beyond any possible reproach.
• "I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down," he said at a Nov. 21 rally in Birmingham, Ala. "And I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering." Pants on Fire. There is no video of thousands of people in Jersey City cheering. Weeks later, Trump continues to stand by his claim but has not been able to point to evidence to back it up. Public safety officials on the ground in New Jersey say it never happened.
• "The Mexican government ... they send the bad ones over." Pants on Fire. There’s no evidence to show the Mexican government encourages criminals to cross the border. Most illegal immigration comes from people seeking work. Recent estimates show illegal immigration from Mexico dropped off dramatically during the recession and has remained low.
Poor Roger doesn't know the election is over.
Somebody should wake him up and tell him.
140 my ass.
Commonsense said...
Poor Roger doesn't know the election is over.
Yes it is, but that doesn't give trump license to get away with stupid comments he has made in the past.
There’s no evidence to show the Mexican government encourages criminals to cross the border.
They don't stop them, that's for sure.
Post a Comment