Tag: Russia

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Donald Trump will “encourage” Russia to attack NATO nations – Video

Donald Trump’s recent comments in South Carolina have once again, unequivocally exposed his unsuitability for the role of President of the United States, especially during a time when strong leadership is crucial.

Speaking at a rally, Donald Trump said that he would allow, in fact, advise Russia to attack any NATO countries that are not paying their bills. “No, I would not protect you,” Trump said to his faithful followers when talking about allowing Russia to attack NATO countries. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

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Malcolm Nance From MSNBC Joins The War in Ukraine

The former employee of MSNBC was interviewed by Joy Reid and explained his reason for joining the war in Ukraine.

“The more I saw of the war going on, the more I thought, ‘I’m done talking, all right? It’s time to take action here,” Nance said. “This is an existential war and Russia has brought it to these people and they are mass murdering civilians, and there are people here like me who are here to do something about it.”

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Democracy

The Weeks Ahead: Pressure, Not Panic

Hoping for something special on Monday when Robert Mueller has promised to unseal the first legal action relating to his probe of Russia’s involvement in the election? Speculation is rampant and the Republicans must be nervous or they wouldn’t be dredging up Hillary stories. My favorites are the ones that say the Democrats are the ones who colluded with Russia. That’s going to be a tough sell when it was members of the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign whose emails were hacked.

But by now we know that facts are not the GOP’s, or the White House’s, stock in trade. And this was the week that the Republicans paved the way for a tax cut bill that the rest of the country hasn’t seen and doesn’t allow for much debate because that might open it up to scrutiny. Or debate. Or criticism. Or the very real possibility that many middle class taxpayers will pay more taxes just so corporations can pay much less.

But the Democrats had better be very careful about what they wish for. President Trump will not be impeached, and by calling for such action the left is courting a very serious backlash. After all; it’s one thing to vehemently disagree with the president. It’s quite another to threaten legal action based on what he’s done so far, which is monumentally bad and retrograde and backwards and the opposite of making our country the envy of the world. In fact, the Republicans are already running their 2018 campaign on the premise that a Democratic Congress will seek to impeach the president,which most people do not support.

In short, calm down and let the legal process work itself out. Robert Mueller has the respect of most of the country. Let the news drip for a while. Oppose the policies and keep a sharp eye on what the White House does, rather than on what it says.

On the tax bill, point out where the middle and lower middle classes will lose because of this bill. Remind people that corporations will pay less, but they won’t because someone has to pay for the tax cuts. Talk about fairness, because in  the end, that’s what this bill is all about, and that’s where it ultimately will fail.

And of course, agitate, agitate, agitate.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Trump – “Are You Allowed to Impeach a President for Gross Incompetence?”

Remember in 2014 when Trump questioned if it was allowed to “impeach a president for gross incompetence?” Well the rest of America is wondering that very same thing today!

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Trump Defends Giving Highly Classified and Confidential Information To Russia

Donald Trump just don’t get it. After it was revealed yesterday that he invited Russian officials to the Oval office last week and shared classified confidential information with them, Donald Trump is now defending his decision in a barrage of tweets earlier this morning.

After the Washington Post broke the news, Trump sent out one of his surrogate, his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, to deny the story. McMaster stood outside the White House and informed reporters that “the story as reported” was “false”

“At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed,” McMaster said, carefully reading from a statement. “And the President did not disclose any military operations that weren’t already publicly known. I was in the room. It didn’t happen.”

Of course the story reported in the Washington Post did not say Trump disclosed military operations or discussed “intelligence sources or methods.” The story stated that Trump shared highly classified information on U.S intelligence about ISIS. Intelligence that was shared with the U.S on the condition it should not be disclosed without the authorization to do so.

Hours after Trump violated this trust, he threw McMaster under the bus and admitted that the report in the Washington Post was in fact, correct. In a tweet storm, Trump gave this reason for giving Russia the classified information.

“As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety, Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism,” he tweeted.

On CNN, former CIA officer Bob Baer, said by revealing this to the Russians, America “has lost control of this information. It’s going to go to the Syrians, It’s going to go to the Iranians — Russian allies.”

Baer continued. “The ability to protect that source whoever he is, wherever he is has been seriously undermined … If a CIA officer had revealed this information to the Russians, he would be fired instantly.”

Even former CIA Director, Leon Panetta was in awe and wondered if Donald Trump realizes that the safety of the United States is in his hands. Panetta was visibly perplexed in a CNN interview. “He is the president,” Panetta lamented, “not just a reality TV star.”

“He is President of the United States. He is not a reality TV star. He is not just another personality. He is President of the United States.”

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Report – Trump Revealed “Highly Classified” Information to Russian Officials

Donald Trump is a disaster and he is dragging this country off a cliff. I just had to get that off my chest!

In a bombshell report by The Washington Post, this week’s unbelievable Donald Trump story is about highly classified information that Donald Trump shared with Russia last week in the Oval Office.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The revelation comes as the president faces rising legal and political pressure on multiple Russia-related fronts. Last week, he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in the midst of a bureau investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Trump’s subsequent admission that his decision was driven by “this Russia thing” was seen by critics as attempted obstruction of justice.

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FBI Received Warrent to Monitor Trump Adviser’s Interaction with Russian Spies

Getting the FISA warrant to spy on a foreigner is easy. Getting a FISA warrant to spy on an American is not the easiest thing to get, as evidence of wrongdoing or colluding or being a secret agent of a foreign entity is required by the court. So when a FISA warrant was issued to the FBI to monitor Trump adviser, Carter Page, then we anticipate more news about the findings of that warrant to come forward soon.

The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.

The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.

This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

 

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Russia and Iran Warns of War if America Attacks Syria Again

Are you ready for World War III?

A statement released by “the joint command operation center of Syrian allies,” a group that includes Russia and Iran, warned the U.S. against further military actions in the war-torn country, following a missile strike on a Syrian air base last week.

Referring to its defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s regime, the group warned that they would support Syria and its people “with all means that we have.”

“The United States crossed red lines by attacking Syria, from now on we will respond to anyone, including America if it attacks Syria and crosses the red lines,” the statement read. “America knows very well our ability and capabilities to respond well to them, [and] we will respond without taking into consideration any reaction and consequences.”

The statement did not include critical details like what kind of military operation would cross such a red line, or what kind of response would be made on the part of Syria and its allies, but noted that they would work to “liberate” Syria from occupation.

“Rest assured that we will liberate Syria from all kinds of occupying forces, it does not matter from where they came to the occupied part of Syria,” the statement warned. “Russia and Iran will not allow the United States to be the only superpower in world.”

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Republican Representative Calls for Nunes to Recuse Himself

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., speaks as CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen, NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart appear at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

When people from your own party starts calling for your resignation, then you know you have hit rock bottom.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) on Tuesday told The Hill that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) should “absolutely” recuse himself from his panel’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in last year’s election.

Jones, a member of the House Armed Services Committee who frequently bucks leadership, is the first Republican in Congress to call on Nunes to step aside.

“How can you be chairman of a major committee and do all these things behind the scenes and keep your credibility? You can’t keep your credibility,” Jones said just off the House floor.

“If anything has shown that we need a commission, this has done it by the way he has acted. That’s the only way you can bring integrity to the process. The integrity of the committee looking into this has been tainted.”

Jones is the only Republican co-sponsor on a measure from Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) that would establish an independent commission to probe Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Nunes on Tuesday brushed aside calls to recuse himself, asking why he should.

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Dick Cheney – Russia’s Meddling in U.S Election Could be an “act of war”

You’ll think that since President Obama is no longer the president and a fellow Republican is, that Dick Cheney would be on television walking in line and singing the praises of Donald Trump. But it appears Cheney is not much of a fan on the Donald.

In a speech at the Economic Times’ Global Business Summit, Cheney calls Russia’s decision to help Donald win the presidency, “an act of war.”

“There’s no question there was a very serious effort made by Mr. [Vladimir] Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes,” Cheney said.

“In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war. I think it’s a kind of conduct and activity we will see going forward. We know he’s attempted it previously in other states in the Baltics,” Cheney said, according to video of the remarks.

Some Democratic lawmakers charged last week that Russia’s election meddling amounted to an act of war, and others have accused Moscow of “attacking” the United States through its hacking.

“I actually think that their engagement was an act of war, an act of hybrid warfare, and I think that’s why the American people should be concerned about it,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian election interference last Monday.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also said back in December that Russia’s actions amounted to an act of war.

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FBI Director – No Evidence of Wiretapping, But Investigating Trump/Russia Ties

The Trump White House took another hit today when FBI Director, James Comey, shot down Trump’s false claims of being wiretap by former President, Barack Obama. Comey also confirmed that the FBI is actively investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The FBI is investigating whether President Donald Trump’s campaign associates coordinated with Russian officials in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election, Director James Comey said Monday in an extraordinary public confirmation of a probe the president has refused to acknowledge, dismissed as fake news and blamed on Democrats.

In a bruising five-hour session, the FBI director also knocked down Trump’s claim that his predecessor had wiretapped his New York skyscraper, an assertion that has distracted White House officials and frustrated fellow Republicans who acknowledge they’ve seen no evidence to support it.

The revelation of the investigation of possible collusion with Russians, and the first public confirmation of the wider probe that began last summer, came in a remarkable hearing by one branch of government examining serious allegations against another branch and the new president’s election campaign.

Tight-lipped for the most part, Comey refused to offer details on the scope, targets or timeline for the FBI investigation, which could shadow the White House for months, if not years. The director would not say whether the probe has turned up evidence that Trump associates may have schemed with Russians during a campaign marked by email hacking that investigators believe was aimed at helping the Republican defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“I can promise you,” the FBI director vowed, “we will follow the facts wherever they lead.”

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Jeff Sessions Apparently Forgot About This Meeting with Russian Operatives

Maybe it’s Alzheimer, or maybe it’s just selective memory. Whatever it is, Trump’s Attorney General is not being totally honest with the American people.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to amend prior testimony to Congress this week, acknowledging that contrary to an earlier statement, he’d encountered the Russian ambassador to the United States twice in the last year.

Sessions appears to have left out a third instance in which they crossed paths.

In April of 2016, Sessions attended a VIP reception at a hotel in Washington, D.C., with President Donald Trump and roughly two dozen guests, including four ambassadors. One of them was Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The cocktail meet-and-greet took place in a private room at the Mayflower Hotel near the White House. Shortly thereafter, Trump delivered a foreign policy speech in the hotel’s ballroom, where he called for improved U.S.-Russia relations. Kislyak was seated in the front row.

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