[W:775]Trump: ‘I think I’d take’ damaging info on 2020 rival from foreign operatives

[Ouroboros]

Re: Trump: ‘I think I’d take’ damaging info on 2020 rival from foreign operatives

This work?

Putin Said in Helsinki He Wanted Trump to Win - The Atlantic

And we should trust Putin's word-- because why exactly?

 

[Ouroboros]

It makes no sense at all to have the Russian government sow discord at Trump's expense BEFORE the election.
AFTER Trump becomes a president makes sense to have the Russians trying in certain cases to undermine even Trump in order to sow discord.

By the way, I do NOT argue about the accuracy of the information in the Steele dossier. My argument is that this information did not come from Russians working for the Russian government.

Here's one argument for "Russians were after everyone."

Russian hackers also probed some other Republicans, but their efforts were more limited and less successful than those aimed at Democrats. James Comey testified in January of 2017, when he was still FBI director, that Russians tried to targeted the Republican National Committee in 2016. “There was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organizations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

 

[Cougarbear]

Link

He is a vast, moral wasteland.

You mean like the Democrat National Party and Hillary Clinton who bought and paid for the "Steel" Dossier whom Steel is a Russian Operative from the Russians who said they had dirt on Trump??? Then there is Biden and his connection to the Ukrainian Government that was going to give dirt on Trump too. You people who jump on Trump complaining about his morality make me sick!!!

 

[pamak]

Here's one argument for "Russians were after everyone."

The quote repeats what we already know from the intelligence reports. The fact that Russians spent some effort to hack also republican facilities is known by such reports. It is also known that one of the reasons the intelligence agencies concluded that the Russians wanted specifically to help Trump was that they did not see any Russian attempt to leak whatever information they got from hacking the republicans. The quote does not sound odd. As I said, if the Russians wanted to gather potential harmful to the republicans (and Trump) information to use at some point in the future sounds quite rational from their point of view.

But it does not sound rational to leak such harmful information before the election when they saw a candidate who was clearly more open to establishing better relations with Russia than Hillary. Recall that Russia had already invaded Crimea and the Russian military was helping the Russian minority in Ukraine and that even the republicans were accusing Hillary of being a Cold War warmonger. It should be pretty clear that in such environment a candidate who sounded as being much more friendly and open to Russians would be the clear choice of the Russian government.

 

[Incredulous]

You mean like the Democrat National Party and Hillary Clinton who bought and paid for the "Steel" Dossier whom Steel is a Russian Operative from the Russians who said they had dirt on Trump??? Then there is Biden and his connection to the Ukrainian Government that was going to give dirt on Trump too. You people who jump on Trump complaining about his morality make me sick!!!

People who defend his morality make me sick. Call a spade a spade, no matter if they have an "R" or a "D" behind their name. Until then, you're (in general) being led blindly by your bias.

 

[Cougarbear]

Re: Trump: ‘I think I’d take’ damaging info on 2020 rival from foreign operatives

Your first question is stupid!

Hillary did not pay a foreign agent. Hillary paid an American company for getting a type of service (opposition research). A customer who pays an American company does not dictate how the company runs its business. Many of us here pay American companies for things like internet service or cable TV. And all these companies in turn do things like hiring foreigners for customer services in India or other countries.

No serious person can actually argue that you hired the Indian guy who helps you on the phone to solve a problem with your internet service or whatever. And in fact, in this scenario you even talk directly to a "foreign agent." Hilary did not even see or talked to Steele directly. She did not even use his service 'dossier' before the election!

HAHAHAHAH :lamo :2funny:

So, if Trump meant that he would use a go between company like Hillary did, then it would be okay??? She knew what she was going after. She just tried to cover her butt by paying another company to do it. Just like the bleach bit and destroying of her emails after they were subpeoned. The lengths you Democrats will go to protect your own immorality is really astounding!!!

 

[Chomsky]

traitor trump is merely admitting what he already did, collude and obstruct, trying to normalize it with his dazed and confused cult.

This is just the madman trying to change the narrative after his disastrous polling in the 17 INDIVIDUAL states that are in play.

If Helsinki didn’t change a person, nothing will.

Hear! Hear!

I couldn't agree more! :thumbs:

 

[lurchadams]

What foreign agents were in the Trump campaign?

Paul Manafort, a paid agent of the Putin-linked dictator in the Ukraine and Michael Flynn a paid agent of Turkey.

Next question.

 

[Cougarbear]

People who defend his morality make me sick. Call a spade a spade, no matter if they have an "R" or a "D" behind their name. Until then, you're (in general) being led blindly by your bias.

He set you guys up!!! And you all took the bait! Now you are trying to tell us that you are objective after ridiculing Trump when he has done nothing wrong. He just threw that out there to get you all riled up. Funny!!!

 

[Athanasius68]

And just to show how deep inside the rabbit hole Trump supporters are going...


Recall their reaction to the criticism after Trump invited the Russians to find his opponent's emails with his "Russia if you are listening..." speech.
Their reaction at that time was that the Trump critics are overreacting and could not recognize that Trump was joking.

Enter three years since then, and now you see Trump saying something similar, only this time he says that he may be willing to listen to any country which will offer dirty laundry for Trump's political opponent. So, it is more like "Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, whatever...if you are listening..."

And what is the reaction of Trump supporters? They do not even try to argue that Trump was joking! They try to minimize the controversy of the statement by arguing that everybody uses the services of foreign nationals serving the interests of foreign governments.

Pathetic...

You're still not getting it...
The only meaningful and consequential contacts that occurred in 2016 were the ones that resulted in the Steele Dossier.
Nothing else mattered. Remove the dossier from equation and there is no reason to think Trump and Russia conspired. All we are left with are a few occasions where Russia reached out and the Trump campaign responded. And nothing happened. There was NO conspiracy to fix the election.

The response by the Dems and others over the past couple of years is clearly political. Which is ok. Unfortunately they deny it.

 

[SLC]

Paul Manafort, a paid agent of the Putin-linked dictator in the Ukraine and Michael Flynn a paid agent of Turkey.

Next question.

Turkey is an ally and the Ukraine was assisting Hillary. Remember when Manafort was forced to step down as campaign chairman. That was the Ukraine colluding with HRC campaign to expose dirt on Manafort.


And they were not foreign agents they were US citizens that represent foreign countries by lobbying for them. We can discuss whether or not that was appropriate or not. Technically it is not but it is a very frequent occurrence in Washington.

 

[pamak]

Re: Trump: ‘I think I’d take’ damaging info on 2020 rival from foreign operatives

HAHAHAHAH :lamo :2funny:

So, if Trump meant that he would use a go between company like Hillary did, then it would be okay??? She knew what she was going after. She just tried to cover her butt by paying another company to do it. Just like the bleach bit and destroying of her emails after they were subpeoned. The lengths you Democrats will go to protect your own immorality is really astounding!!!

hmmmmm, did you miss the fact that the same company FUSION was used by other republicans in the past?
Did you also miss the fact that the Trump Campaign had been using a British company (Cambridge Analytica) through its office in the US for data gathering?
And again, the company or Steele (FUSION) did not contact the Russian government. This is ludicrous! Do you see it as logical to have anybody contacting the Russian government to ask them if they used clandestine methods to compromise Trump?

Finally, Hillary did not even use the Steele dossier BEFORE the election when she was getting hammered by the reopening of the FBI investigation. This clearly shows that there is not a serious connection between Hillary and Steele.

 

[Athanasius68]

It makes no sense at all to have the Russian government sow discord at Trump's expense BEFORE the election.
AFTER Trump becomes a president makes sense to have the Russians trying in certain cases to undermine even Trump in order to sow discord.

By the way, I do NOT argue about the accuracy of the information in the Steele dossier. My argument is that this information did not come from Russians working for the Russian government.

If Clinton had won the election (which everyone pretty much thought she would), what would be the difference? The dossier would have still had been compiled and it would have been published. And it still would have said that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia in the election.
Do you think maybe that would have caused a lot of political chaos as well?

 

[Grand Mal]

Re: Trump: ‘I think I’d take’ damaging info on 2020 rival from foreign operatives

HAHAHAHAH :lamo :2funny:

So, if Trump meant that he would use a go between company like Hillary did, then it would be okay??? She knew what she was going after. She just tried to cover her butt by paying another company to do it. Just like the bleach bit and destroying of her emails after they were subpeoned. The lengths you Democrats will go to protect your own immorality is really astounding!!!

Remind me, who got the ball rolling? Who hired Fusion GPS? Oh yeah, I remember, it was the far-right conservative website Washington Free Beacon looking for dirt on Trump. When they bailed on it the Clinton campaign picked it up but Steele didn't know who the customer was.

 

[pamak]

If Clinton had won the election (which everyone pretty much thought she would), what would be the difference? The dossier would have still had been compiled and it would have been published. And it still would have said that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia in the election.
Do you think maybe that would have caused a lot of political chaos as well?

Your argument makes no sense because on the one hand you argue that Clinton believed that she would win the election and that any leak of damaging information against Trump would not make any difference, and on the other hand you argue that Clinton thought it was useful to hire FUSION (not Steele) to find damaging information against Trump even though she thought that she would win for sure the elections. So, there is a logical contradiction in what you believe about Clinton's views!

 

[lurchadams]

Turkey is an ally and the Ukraine was assisting Hillary. Remember when Manafort was forced to step down as campaign chairman. That was the Ukraine colluding with HRC campaign to expose dirt on Manafort.


And they were not foreign agents they were US citizens that represent foreign countries by lobbying for them. We can discuss whether or not that was appropriate or not. Technically it is not but it is a very frequent occurrence in Washington.

Neither Manafort nor Flynn disclosed their ties to foreign powers. Flynn was given access to top secret intelligence and the position of NSA. It's not "technically wrong" it's really, really wrong!

Answer this: With the severe financial troubles Manafort was experiencing why would he agree to be trump's campaign manager with zero compensation? C'mon man - these guys stink to high heaven which is one of the reasons they're both in prison.

 

[Fletch]

Neither Manafort nor Flynn disclosed their ties to foreign powers. Flynn was given access to top secret intelligence and the position of NSA. It's not "technically wrong" it's really, really wrong!

Answer this: With the severe financial troubles Manafort was experiencing why would he agree to be trump's campaign manager with zero compensation? C'mon man - these guys stink to high heaven which is one of the reasons they're both in prison.

Well, Flynn is not in prison, but Manfort is. It seems pretty clear his goal was to parlay his political position on the Trump team into cash for himself. As for Flynn, I am still not sure what exactly it was he did that has led to this 2 1/2 year legal battle.

 

[Incredulous]

He set you guys up!!! And you all took the bait! Now you are trying to tell us that you are objective after ridiculing Trump when he has done nothing wrong. He just threw that out there to get you all riled up. Funny!!!

Likely reply to having your bias pointed out. Have a nice day.

 

[MTAtech]

Neither Manafort nor Flynn disclosed their ties to foreign powers. Flynn was given access to top secret intelligence and the position of NSA. It's not "technically wrong" it's really, really wrong!

Answer this: With the severe financial troubles Manafort was experiencing why would he agree to be trump's campaign manager with zero compensation? C'mon man - these guys stink to high heaven which is one of the reasons they're both in prison.

Moreover, Flynn and his son were conspiring to kidnap a Turkish national and deliver him to the Turkish government.

Anyone capable of looking beyond their ideological blinders can see what unpatriotic crooks the entire bunch is.

 

[apdst]

That's a pathetic and old lie.

Steele was not an agent. He had been. But was not. So, not an agent. Nothing illegal.

The RNC commissioned the dossier. The company the RNC paid hired Steele.

He's a foreigner and he got information from a foreign government. Going through middleman changes nothing.

The company the RNC paid hired Steele.

That part is the lie.

 

[iguanaman]

Sooo…
"Lock her up"???

So for what? Or don't you care? Hillary not get any emails that said she had the support of the Russian Govt. and she never said she would "love it" either.

 

[iguanaman]

He's a foreigner and he got information from a foreign government. Going through middleman changes nothing.



That part is the lie.

The law specifically says a candidate cannot accept help from a foreign Govt. but you think it should just say foreigners? Do you just make this stuff up? Do you even understand why the law was made? Trump was compromised by accepting Putin's help and it was there for all to see in Helsinki. The founders would be livid.

 

[apdst]

The law specifically says a candidate cannot accept help from a foreign Govt. but you think it should just say foreigners? Do you just make this stuff up?

Getting information from a foreign government through a middleman bypasses the law? If so, then the law is absolutely useless.

 

[Athanasius68]

Neither Manafort nor Flynn disclosed their ties to foreign powers. Flynn was given access to top secret intelligence and the position of NSA. It's not "technically wrong" it's really, really wrong!

Answer this: With the severe financial troubles Manafort was experiencing why would he agree to be trump's campaign manager with zero compensation? C'mon man - these guys stink to high heaven which is one of the reasons they're both in prison.

But what does this have to do with a claim that Trump and Russia conspired in the election?

 

[Athanasius68]

Your argument makes no sense because on the one hand you argue that Clinton believed that she would win the election and that any leak of damaging information against Trump would not make any difference, and on the other hand you argue that Clinton thought it was useful to hire FUSION (not Steele) to find damaging information against Trump even though she thought that she would win for sure the elections. So, there is a logical contradiction in what you believe about Clinton's views!

Russia- not Clinton