The Russia Investigation: Trump Pardons Flynn (7 Viewers)

[TripItUp]

I am really not heavily invested in this. Objectively, Trump looks awful in all of this. 

Yeah, not really.   

And I'm not a Trump fan.  The Dems look like clowns investing all of this energy on a fool's errand.  

The 2020 results won't lie.

 

[jonessed]

What I am seeing looks pretty bad-worse than I expected after Barr's previous statements. 

I haven’t seen anything new.  It was always about connecting the dots to get to collusion or a criminal conspiracy.

The expectation was that Mueller would do that work.  Apparently he didn’t find they were connected.

 

[shader]

Which is a pretty important point after we’d heard a few posters say, weeks ago, “See? The unseen Mueller report shows thst the mainstream media had this totally wrong for the last two years!”

Actually, now that we’ve seen (much of) the Mueller report, it’s basically a confirmstion of what the mainstream media has reported for the last two years.

I guess some of us had confidence in the word of an attorney general. I admit to being totally wrong 

 

[adonis]

It's never a waste of time or taxpayer money to seek to uphold the laws of our nation and hold our elected officials to high standards of behavior.

yeah, nobody buys that line of bull#### except the CNN honks and misguided liberals.

This was political from the beginning, everybody knows it and chickens will be coming home to roos in 2020 as a result of this clown show.

I'm going to guess you haven't read the report.

The only "political" pieces of this have been coming from Trump's tweets, his attempts to obstruct the investigation, and his and his campaigns poor behavior during the campaign that may not have reached a criminally prosecutable level, but CLEARLY crossed almost every line of what behavior we should expect from those seeking the presidency.

The report is a sober analysis of poor behavior by Trump and his associates.

 

[TripItUp]

Well he’s impeached. Removed from office? Doubtful. Don’t think impeachment will look good on the re-election campaign 

Pelosi and company have already backed off of the impeachment talk.

What fantasy land are we living in here?

The Dems have an egg on their face, end of story.  

 

[TobiasFunke]

Colossal waste of time and taxpayer money.

Middle class Americans can't afford healthcare and housing and American politicians are dicking around with this crap.

Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot for 2020 and don't even realize it.   At the end of the day, this hurts the Dems in the next election, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Basically every word of this post is wrong, other than the healthcare/housing line.

The investigation (conducted by prosecutors, not politicians) was essentially free if a money maker, it was necessary after the Comey firing to restore American faith in government regardless of the conclusion, it revealed a ton of new information about Russian interference efforts that is helpful to all Americans interested in free and fair elections, and it will have basically no impact on the 2020 elections as demonstrated by the fact that Trump's approval rating has not budged an inch since the March 24 Barr summary letter.

Other than that, great post!

 

[adonis]

Well he’s impeached. Removed from office? Doubtful. Don’t think impeachment will look good on the re-election campaign 

How can he even run a campaign?

These opposition commercials write themselves.

 

[Sheriff Bart]

I mean, I was trying to be honest. Sorry. Not a drug guy myself so can't really relate. 

I've seen you smoke weed. "What if your weed was on fire"? 

 

[Weebs210]

How can he even run a campaign?

These opposition commercials write themselves.

Doesn't even need too. You guys are doing a wonderful job embarrassing your party.

 

[John Bender]

I've seen you smoke weed. "What if your weed was on fire"? 

What if your DOPE was on fire. 

 

[TripItUp]

I'm going to guess you haven't read the report.

The only "political" pieces of this have been coming from Trump's tweets, his attempts to obstruct the investigation, and his and his campaigns poor behavior during the campaign that may not have reached a criminally prosecutable level, but CLEARLY crossed almost every line of what behavior we should expect from those seeking the presidency.

Nobody cares, except those trying to derail Trump's political agenda.

American's  care about jobs and healthcare, not this bologna.  Every non-left poll supports that.  That's why Dem leadership has been cutting bait for weeks...they know they lost and can only make it worse.  

The charade you're watching on CNN today is about trying to save face with the base.  This is not a good thing if you support a liberal agenda...the middle just moved further to the right this past few weeks.

 

[jonessed]

Schiff has been right on the money the whole time.  He has been acting patriotically, while, you can see in the Mueller report, Trump and his team have not.

They've engaged with Russian intelligence to help win an election, they've lied about relationships with Russians, they've obstructed justice leading up to Comey's firing, demonized the intelligence community because the truth made them look bad, demonized Mueller, called the whole thing a witch hunt, Trump attempted to obstruct justice repeatedly over time, and now has Barr in place to run cover for him as the AG.

And you likely have Schiff pegged as the bad guy in all of this?  Man. 

No shortage of bad guys here.  

Schiff is still under investigation so we will see just how bad Schiff is shortly.

 

[Ilov80s]

I haven’t seen anything new.  It was always about connecting the dots to get to collusion or a criminal conspiracy.

The expectation was that Mueller would do that work.  Apparently he didn’t find they were connected.

At a bare minimum it backs-up what a lot of the mainstream media has been reporting. Trump's written responses to questions were inadequate. Lies within the Trump team severely impaired the investigation. Relevant communications were deleted. They can not be confident in saying Trump is innocent of obstructing justice. 

 

[Sinn Fein]

The charade you're watching on CNN today is about trying to save face with the base.

Who is watching CNN?

What are they saying?

 

[Sheriff Bart]

Which is a pretty important point after we’d heard a few posters say, weeks ago, “See? The unseen Mueller report shows thst the mainstream media had this totally wrong for the last two years!”

Actually, now that we’ve seen (much of) the Mueller report, it’s basically a confirmstion of what the mainstream media has reported for the last two years.

I'm sure we will see retractions from Fox, Washington Examiner, The Federalist, and National Review that their stories calling for an apology from the MSM were completely wrong. 

 

[Psychopav]

There is a line where he's talking to Gates and says there are more Wikileaks releases coming. He knew, and expected to benefit electorally. In light of that foreknowledge, it makes it hard to conclude that his "I'm ####ed" comment isn't consciousness of guilt. It's also a stretch to think policy changes weren't a quid pro quo for assistance and/or to promote the Trump Tower Moscow deal that he lied overtly about.

Impeach.

The notes literally attribute to him the rationale for stating that he's ####ed, and that rationale is a generalized conviction that special prosecutors prevent presidents from being able to accomplish anything.  You can't both pull out a comment from third party notes and at the same time ignore the rationale for the comment given in the same third party notes.

 

[jonessed]

I'm going to guess you haven't read the report.

The only "political" pieces of this have been coming from Trump's tweets, his attempts to obstruct the investigation, and his and his campaigns poor behavior during the campaign that may not have reached a criminally prosecutable level, but CLEARLY crossed almost every line of what behavior we should expect from those seeking the presidency.

The report is a sober analysis of poor behavior by Trump and his associates.

Nobody here has.  It’s hundreds of pages long and was just released.

 

[prefontaine]

I guess some of us had confidence in the word of an attorney general. I admit to being totally wrong 

More than anything, this is the news of the day. Most of the report has already been in the public sphere.

But Barr's ridiculous spin job on this is now apparent and undeniable.

 

[adonis]

Nobody cares, except those trying to derail Trump's political agenda.

If you care about our country, you care about the findings in this report.  Period.

This isn't political.  This is rule of law.  Does justice matter?  Do checks and balances matter?  Does the integrity of our system of government matter?

 

[whoknew]

Nobody cares, except those trying to derail Trump's political agenda.

American's  care about jobs and healthcare, not this bologna.  Every non-left poll supports that.  That's why Dem leadership has been cutting bait for weeks...they know they lost and can only make it worse.  

The charade you're watching on CNN today is about trying to save face with the base.  This is not a good thing if you support a liberal agenda...the middle just moved further to the right this past few weeks.

This seems like the most correct thing you've written in the last page or two. Other than most Americans not being able to afford healthcare and housing.

This sentence, sadly, makes a really important point. It doesn't matter what is in this report. Nobody cares. At least not the people who are already Trump fans. Regardless of how many excerpts are posted and how many awful things are brought to light - its the same old dumb talking points.

Its so depressing. 

 

[SoBeDad]

Not a biggie, but Sanders statement about "countless" agents losing faith in Conmey was not "founded on anything", per her sworn testimony in the investigation. 

 

[ren hoek]

Its interesting to think how Barr will be remembered in history. Between this and Iran-Contra, I reckon his reputation will be one of coverup and obfuscation guy for corrupt governments. The worst kind of AG. One that would normally be despised by ren and Glenn Greenwald.

But ... politics makes strange bedfellows. We shall see.

There’s a key difference here.  Iran-Contra was based on serious underlying crimes.  The Trump/Russia collusion theory is based on a complete fantasy.  So there’s nothing in the way of criminal wrongdoing to “cover up”.  

 

[TobiasFunke]

This twitter thread sums up my thoughts on this whole mess nicely, based on what I've read from the report itself and the reactions so far.  Basically, Trump is too dumb and lazy to actually do something that would rise to a criminal conspiracy with Russia but:

"Ironically Greenwald and the Russiagate libs he despises have the same problem but from different angles: They fixate on a Russiagate killshot, he fixates on a Russiagate goose egg, but we should just file Russia under "R" in the whole alphabetical list of Trumpworld criminality"

and

"Despite esteemed member of the DC legal establishment Attorney General Iran-Contra's attempts to bull####, the report is basically 'these guys are insanely corrupt lol' It's just one of a million reasons Trump should be removed from office, from child concentration camps on down"

 

[Ilov80s]

Yeah, not really.   

And I'm not a Trump fan.  The Dems look like clowns investing all of this energy on a fool's errand.  

The 2020 results won't lie.

I think if you look at the big picture of this report and the convictions that have come out of the investigation, it paints a really negative picture of the President and his team. Again, RR, Sessions, Mueller and Comey are Republicans so I don't understand why Democrats are fully to blame here. 

 

[timschochet]

Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot for 2020 and don't even realize it.   At the end of the day, this hurts the Dems in the next election, and I couldn't be happier about that.

I would agree with you if, at the end of the day, they actually impeach him. But they won’t. Pelosi is way too smart for that. They’ll hang it on his head, create the suspicion of guilt, but they will never take it too far. For Democrats this will be the best of both worlds. 

 

[sho nuff]

Thankfully we don't have it imagine the posts people like you, sho, and others would make. It's right here for all of us and the spinning and goal post moving is actually hilarious.

You are making false accusations.  Please post with links what I have said that is spin or moving any goalposts.  Or admit you are trying to get more reactions and have zero inclination to honestly discuss this report.  Because you seem to be ignoring direct quotes and things that are showing your statements to be false and then still making them anyway...and ignoring direct questions and responses to your posting of such false information.  Stop.

 

[adonis]

Which is a pretty important point after we’d heard a few posters say, weeks ago, “See? The unseen Mueller report shows thst the mainstream media had this totally wrong for the last two years!”

Actually, now that we’ve seen (much of) the Mueller report, it’s basically a confirmstion of what the mainstream media has reported for the last two years.

I'm sure we will see retractions from Fox, Washington Examiner, The Federalist, and National Review that their stories calling for an apology from the MSM were completely wrong. 

Speaking of which, this makes all the more absurd the responses put out by the White House about a list of folks the MSM should never invite back on.

Holy crap those folks are so full of ####.

 

[jonessed]

At a bare minimum it backs-up what a lot of the mainstream media has been reporting. Trump's written responses to questions were inadequate. Lies within the Trump team severely impaired the investigation. Relevant communications were deleted. They can not be confident in saying Trump is innocent of obstructing justice. 

If the Democrats feel there is sufficient evidence then they have an obligation to impeach him.  They have their report.  Now is the time.  #### or get off the pot.

 

[shader]

I would agree with you if, at the end of the day, they actually impeach him. But they won’t. Pelosi is way too smart for that. They’ll hang it on his head, create the suspicion of guilt, but they will never take it too far. For Democrats this will be the best of both worlds. 

Disagree. She will go for the jugular now (based on the little bit I’ve read)

 

[Skoo]

There’s a key difference here.  Iran-Contra was based on serious underlying crimes.  The Trump/Russia collusion theory is based on a complete fantasy.  So there’s nothing in the way of criminal wrongdoing to “cover up”.  

Might wanna check out the news today....

 

[adonis]

Not a biggie, but Sanders statement about "countless" agents losing faith in Conmey was not "founded on anything", per her sworn testimony in the investigation. 

So a sworn liar.

Awesome.

Alex Jones and her can commiserate. She's also been heavily peddling conspiracy theories that she has to own up to under oath.

"Only fools believe me" could be applied to her as well.

 

[timschochet]

Disagree. She will go for the jugular now (based on the little bit I’ve read)

She always goes for the jugular. In this case the jugular is not to impeach him. 

 

[TobiasFunke]

There’s a key difference here.  Iran-Contra was based on serious underlying crimes.  The Trump/Russia collusion theory is based on a complete fantasy.  So there’s nothing in the way of criminal wrongdoing to “cover up”.  

I disagree. It's based on a failure to understand that obviously wrong/corrupt actions paired with lying about said actions don't necessarily rise to the level of criminality, and that federal prosecutors are pretty conservative in stretching statutes to do so especially with respect to rich, powerful people.

As for the collusion "fantasy," I don't see how anyone can read what the report says about what Manafort and Kliminik did together and not think it can be reasonably described as "collusion." But if you'd like to take a shot at it I'm all ears.

 

[Ilov80s]

If the Democrats feel there is sufficient evidence then they have an obligation to impeach him.  They have their report.  Now is the time.  #### or get off the pot.

Maybe they will, maybe they won't. They will get to see what is redacted. Who knows what that is. I doubt Trump is going anywhere though. I am more interested in just knowing the truth and hoping in 2020 people can make as informed of a decision as possible and we can shut down any dirty tactics any candidate might try to use. 

 

[Skoo]

If the Democrats feel there is sufficient evidence then they have an obligation to impeach him.  They have their report.  Now is the time.  #### or get off the pot.

As a Democrat I completely agree.

You don't impeach because you think it's the best solution for your party politically, you do it because it's your freaking job.

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

If you care about our country, you care about the findings in this report.  Period.

This isn't political.  This is rule of law.  Does justice matter?  Do checks and balances matter?  Does the integrity of our system of government matter?

This coming from an Obama supporter 

How ironic

 

[TripItUp]

I would agree with you if, at the end of the day, they actually impeach him. But they won’t. Pelosi is way too smart for that. They’ll hang it on his head, create the suspicion of guilt, but they will never take it too far. For Democrats this will be the best of both worlds. 

I don't see how this is good for the Dems.   Anybody can see this was political gamesmanship from the beginning, the kind of stunts that got Trump elected in the first place.

Americans hate this crap and largely hate politicians.

 

[TobiasFunke]

If the Democrats feel there is sufficient evidence then they have an obligation to impeach him.  They have their report.  Now is the time.  #### or get off the pot.

There's bad stuff in this report but I don't think I'd put any of it in a Top 5 list of reasons Trump should be impeached.  Certainly not ahead of the kiddie concentration camps, directing Cohen to perform a felony, or telling the CBP director to violate the law and promising to pardon him if he's caught.

Also, "#### or get off the pot" is a really silly thing to say about impeachment. It should be a careful process based on the results of Congressional investigations followed by an aggregation the impeachable charges. Not the nonsense "now or never!" approach you're proposing after three months of Dem control of the House.

 

[Joe Summer]

It's sad that an investigation into a foreign attack on our country could be criticized for not being profitable enough.

 

[sho nuff]

Colossal waste of time and taxpayer money.

Middle class Americans can't afford healthcare and housing and American politicians are dicking around with this crap.

Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot for 2020 and don't even realize it.   At the end of the day, this hurts the Dems in the next election, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Why do you keep repeating this lie.

Also...why is it a waste of time to investigate foreign influence measures in our electoral process and those who may have committed crimes surrounding it.

It resulted in mutliple indictments and seizure of money (making it not a waste at all).

Middle class healthcare has zero to do with this and its not the dems keeping that from happening either.

This won't shoot any dems in the foot at all...you are a very wishful thinker.

 

[Rove!]

Question stands though - why did Russia want Trump to win so badly?

I don’t think they did.

They just wanted to stir #### up, and thanks to the Russia conspiracy hoaxers, boy did they ever.

 

[Ilov80s]

It's sad that an investigation into a foreign attack on our country could be criticized for not being profitable enough.

This whole thread and everything reminds me of an ol Shark Pool thread for Cowboys vs Giants or Is Eli Manning a great QB. I hate it but it's hard to look away on days this like. 

 

[shader]

She always goes for the jugular. In this case the jugular is not to impeach him. 

I don’t understand this. Most Americans skim news.  If they do a two year investigation and don’t impeach, many voters will assume the sins weren’t all that bad.  If they impeach, he may not be able to even run in 2020, even if he’s not removed.

 

[adonis]

This coming from an Obama supporter 

How ironic

Ah, yes.  Someone who thinks Obama was a criminal, and thinks the Trump investigation is a witch hunt.

You've got your conclusions on backwards.

 

[sho nuff]

Yeah, not really.   

And I'm not a Trump fan.  The Dems look like clowns investing all of this energy on a fool's errand.  

The 2020 results won't lie.

Did you read any of the quotes even posted in here about this or the report itself?

If so...how can you come to any conclusion that this was a waste of time?

How can you claim a waste of money knowing it cost the taxpayers zero?

How can you claim anyone looks like clowns for investigating the Russian effort into our election and the indictments that happened?

Im guessing we will see zero serious answers to these questions from you or the rest of the people acting as if this report is all nothing.

 

[bostonfred]

"I keep thinking of that line from Macbeth full of sound and fury signifying nothing"

Martha Maccallum 

 

[Skoo]

I don’t think they did.

They just wanted to stir #### up, and thanks to the Russia conspiracy hoaxers, boy did they ever.

Literally our entire IC disagrees with you.

It's beyond reasonable doubt at this point. Russia tried to help Trump win. Fact.

Paul Manafort is sitting in jail for sharing polling info with Russians, among other things. Fact.

 

[TripItUp]

Middle class healthcare has zero to do with this and its not the dems keeping that from happening either.

This won't shoot any dems in the foot at all...you are a very wishful thinker.

We shall see, I'd bet money I'm right but it will be impossible to prove obviously.  

You can guarantee Trump is going to mention this in the debates and in speeches.   Between this and the AOC/socialism talk...the Dems have done an outstanding job of energizing the rights base.  Every Republican I know is foaming at the mouth.  

 

[Skoo]

Did you read any of the quotes even posted in here about this or the report itself?

If so...how can you come to any conclusion that this was a waste of time?

How can you claim a waste of money knowing it cost the taxpayers zero?

How can you claim anyone looks like clowns for investigating the Russian effort into our election and the indictments that happened?

Im guessing we will see zero serious answers to these questions from you or the rest of the people acting as if this report is all nothing.

These posters were all going to say the same thing no matter what came out of the report.

And this is why what Barr did is such BS. Got ahead of the story and fed their base what they want to hear so they hopefully ignore the rest.

 

[adonis]

"I keep thinking of that line from Macbeth full of sound and fury signifying nothing"

Martha Maccallum 

At worst, this seriously cripples his re-election campaign.