It was an extraordinary sight, and Donald Trump's day of reckoning.
His worst nightmare coming true.
The FBI director, and the director of the National Security Agency, testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, and all but calling Trump a liar.
It couldn't have been more shocking.
The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, took the extraordinary step on Monday of announcing that the agency is investigating whether members of President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
Or more humiliating.
Joined by Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, Mr. Comey also dismissed Mr. Trump’s claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor during the campaign, a sensational accusation that has served as a distraction in the public debate over Russian election interference.
But what made it even more disturbing was the way Trump reacted on Twitter.
With his first tweet of the day, on his personal account, bellowing with defiance.
And his official so-called POTUS Twitter account later pumping out an alternate vision of reality.
The president’s tweets throughout the day were misleading, inaccurate or simply false. The gravity of the disclosures might have called for a more restrained response, as the White House’s well of credibility is only so deep. But the president chose another approach — which clearly backfired, tweet after tweet.
As you can see here.
With the Republicans trying to claim that leaks were the real problem, or even suggesting that Trump and his associates have been cleared.
The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process. pic.twitter.com/d9HqkxYBt5
— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017
When in fact they have not, and the investigation continues.
“We’ve offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact because it’s not something we looked at,” Mr. Comey said, clarifying that the intelligence community is examining what Russia did to interfere with the election, not the effect of that interference.
Which couldn't be more sinister, or more Big Brother...
Or more desperate.
For nothing Trump and the Republicans said or did could conceal the fact that it was a really bad day.
It is impossible to overstate the significance of the revelation that the FBI is investigating possible collusion between the Russian government and President Donald Trump’s campaign team during last year’s election.
This bombshell could eventually be remembered as the beginning of the end of the chaotic Trump presidency. At the very least, it means Mr. Trump will not soon escape from under the cloud of suspicion hovering over him and his campaign team.
It could very well be the beginning of the end of Trump's mutant presidency.
For who knows where this story could go?
So who can blame Keith Olbermann for suggesting that maybe it's time for Trump to flee the country?
Trump probably won't flee the country. That would be too easy.
And no other country, including Russia, would want him.
But his presidency is being seriously degraded.
Trump is looking like a heap of pulled pork.
And the day of justice is edging ever closer...
I will dance the day he is removed from power, even if it means President Pence. The alt-left can scream about Pence all they want but he is a whole hell of a lot less likely to start a nuclear war over twitter or Smoot-Hawley us into another Great Depression.
ReplyDeletehi anon...I'm afraid I have to agree with you. Pence is a creepy social conservative, but at least he appears rational, and is therefore less dangerous than Trump. One never knows what the orange oaf is going to say, and I'd rather not see what he might do if a major crisis should erupt...
DeleteI remain totally unconvinced the the FSB or any other official Russian organization tried to support the Trump campaign. The “evidence” the US has produced so far makes the “weapons of mass destruction” evidence in Iraq look rock solid. Russia might have done some mischief overall in the campaign but the evidence there is as tenuous as a spiderweb.
ReplyDeleteThe USA has away been prone to conspiracy theories since the founding of the republic. I think US politicians have been calling each other traitors since before the ink was dry on the constitution. On the [lack of] evidence so far, it looks to me that a bunch of shocked and disappointed Democrats have used Russia as a bogyman to flog the Republicans and Trump.
It looks like an irresponsible call to international affairs to help in a domestic fist-fight. It reminds me of David Cameron and his referendum to deal with an internal Conservative Party spat.
It may be that the Democrats actually believed their accusations since it was “impossible“ that their candidate could have been defeated by an orange mountebank unless there was a conspiracy with a foreign power. This absolves them for the the fact that they had a hated candidate, lousy policies and an abysmal campaign orchestrated by a corrupt and incompetent DNC.
On the other hand, they may just have been striking out wildly in revenge.
I would not be at all surprised to find that Trump associates were up to their necks in involvement with various Russians including close associates of Putin but my guess is the activities will be found to mainly concern dubious business deals, a few scams and perhaps some legal or illegal money laundering. If the FBI actually does something we may find a few people facing criminal charges
Still Trump deserves just about anything he gets. He called Hilary a crook and said he was going to “lock her up”; having the FBI investigate him is more than fair, especially as we already know that he is a crook. He may well have had a few “slightly irregular” dealings with Russian and “Stans” politicians and oligarchs.
The fact that the FBI is investigating links with the Russian government is not particularly meaningful. First, if the accusations have been made with any even vaguely believable basis then it probably are obliged to do so. The FBI is very much a political organization and may well find it expedient to carry out such an investigation. The FBI director and/or senior management may have come to the conclusion that Trump is such a loose cannon that taking him down is the safest alternative especially as they may be facing a solid Democratic House and Senate in two years.
On the topic of Trump fleeing the country, has Trump insulted Cuba in the last few days? I was just thinking yesterday that on one of his trips south to Florida he might continue on to Cuba and ask Raul Castro for asylum. Cuba is a large island, Raul could give him a villa just outside the Guantanamo fence. It's a long way from Havana.
We have not had a plane hijacked to Cuba in decades. It would be nice to see someone keeping up the old traditions.
hi jrkrideau... like so many others I don't know who or what to believe. All the players involved have bad track records as far as the truth is concerned. But if Trump wants to smear Obama with his wild allegations, he should present his proof or just shut up. Having a serial liar in the Oval Office is bad at any time, but should the U.S. be hit by a major crisis, it could be incredibly dangerous...
Deleteshould the U.S. be hit by a major crisis, it could be incredibly dangerous...
DeleteYes, I don't think Trump has anything like the knowledge, personality or intellectual ability to handle even a minor crisis. His display of ignorance with Angela Merkel was astounding.
He somehow thinks that Germany owes the USA money because of NATO. Duh, hint to Trump the USA has not been hiring out mercenaries to the other NATO nations the way Hesse did for the UK in during the American Revolution.
And with some of his key advisors not seeming to be much more balanced we are in deep trouble. If he had set of experienced advisors with deep international experience around him it might not be too bad but he does not.
One of the things that I am sure Trump has never realized is that business and government are totally different things and in many cases the skills required to run a successful large business are often diametrically opposed to those required to run a successful government.
Of course, Trump would have a problem running a successful dépanneur but too many of his appointees are businessmen. (Not business women)
Cross dressing flaming homosexual J Edgar Hoover defined the FBI. Nothing has changed and the chance of getting truth from any one of the alphabet organizations
ReplyDeleteis slim
hi Steve...the FBI may be an organization with a tainted past, but it helped your man Trump win the election, so you should be grateful. And if someone somewhere is working on a dirty bomb, they are still our best hope of avoiding catastrophe...
Deleteits the best soap opera on day time t.v. right now. Trump tweeting as the other 2 were testifying. its about as funny as it can get. Now of course the problem its happening in the U.S.A. and not some tiny two bit country which won't impact other countries. As entertaining as this all is, its distracting from a whole lot of other important stuff. Perhaps that is the intent. who knows.
ReplyDeleteIt is doubtful that any of this will hasten Trump's exit. As long as those rallies he holds continue with a decent attendance, he will stay in office.
Part of the problem as I see it, is that the Democrats don't have a game plan for how to move forward. There is no rising star there right now. Given how much the Democrats poured into Clinton, I suspect no one ever thought about planning for another outcome.
hi e.a.f...it may be an entertaining show now, but as I said above, should a major crisis strike, we could all be in big trouble. We can't be sure that Trump is sane, and he does have his twitchy little fingers within reach of the nuclear button. I used to think that people like Mad Dog Mattis might be able to restrain Trump, but I recently learned that Trump (or Bannon) has assigned an alt-right heavy to follow Mattis around so I have no confidence in any of them..
DeleteKoch brothers control the rep party. They love Pence the right wing religious bigot but he would never be elected. Back Trump, the make America great guy, with all his bs and have him choose Pence as running mate. Let Trump continue to make himself a fool, dig up something to impeach him and Pence becomes the man. The 10% will decimate the the country and a totalitarian government will be in place.
ReplyDeletehi unknown....I have hear that theory before, and who is to say it's not true? I'm quite sure that many Republicans would prefer Pence, and the Koch brothers have been very active recently pressuring Trump to do more to obliterate Obamacare. So yes, we are in the hands of the mad and the dangerous....
ReplyDelete@ jrideau
ReplyDeleteI would not be at all surprised to find that Trump associates were up to their necks in involvement with various Russians including close associates of Putin but my guess is the activities will be found to mainly concern dubious business deals, a few scams and perhaps some legal or illegal money laundering.
Humm, as I was saying
Bank that lent $300m to Trump linked to Russian money laundering scam
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/deutsche-bank-that-lent-300m-to-trump-linked-to-russian-money-laundering-scam?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=218418&subid=17290955&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Simon:
ReplyDeleteI made clear last summer that I was seeing the signs of this Russian involvement and that it was weird how blatant they were being. Comey said, and I quote they were "unusually loud" in how they did this operation. There is more than enough grounds to believe this, and frankly, anyone that compares the WMDs argument to what happened here has shown they do not know enough about what they are talking about to trust nor take seriously. In that case one had multiple leaks from multiple agencies saying the WMD argument being stove-piped by Cheney and his people was bogus, Knight-Ridder reported on this repeatedly at the time. It was clearly out there that there was great dissention, that Cheney and his people were stove-piping intelligence, and that there was no consensus, let alone consensus with high confidence (which is a term of art inside that world, it is as close to certainty as they go) on the WMDs, ESPECIALLY the nuclear claims from the IC.
Contrast that with what happened here. You have 17 agencies signing off on having "high confidence" that Russia hacked the DNC, Podesta, and released the collected information via various means, from DC Leaks, to WikiLeaks, and so forth. That this was intended to hurt Clinton and help Trump was only slightly less confidently seen, and this is last summer/fall being talked about here. That is as rare an event in the intelligence world as I've ever seen in my life. Again, a point I was making last year, as I suspect you recall.
Since then we have seen multiple contacts existed at the top level of team Trump and Russian officials and suspected intelligence operatives of Russia. We have seen them denied and denied until the leaks forced the truth out, and it caused some to lie under oath, namely Flynn and Sessions, the NSA and AG Trump chose, it cost one his job and the other to have to recuse from any investigations into team trump's actions in any way in the campaign. That is NOT the actions of innocent people, this is the actions of cover-up, and of the legal concept of "mes rea", or "the guilty mind" awareness of what they had done was wrong.
This happened Simon, it is serious, real, and an existential threat not just to the USA but the global western order. Which I would add for those that fail to get this, means Canada and Canadians too. I am *INFURIATED* at how many refuse to see the elephant excrementing on them as it is doing it.
Sorry Simon, you know I avoid binary thinking and choices as much as possible, but this is getting to the point of either you are with the west or with Putin's Russia's version of how the world should work. As bad as the western order can be, the Russian order would be far more unstable, violent, bloody, and dangerous to the entire species by no small margin judging by how they run Russia.
It really is that bad Simon, and I *do* know the intelligence world better than the average bear. Take my word on it, this really happened, it really is that bad, and as much as made it into the White World aka public view, I believe it is still not the worst of the reality. Consider how often I tend to read these things correctly Simon, and I hope your sleep is better than mine has been where this is concerned.