President 'The Donald' Trump and Surprising Consequences - Mod warning in OP

Itssoeasy

ThisRegard wrote: »

Trump cancelled his visit to the Masada fort, a UNESCO site, because he wasn't allowed land there in his helicopter. Previous presidential visitors landed at the bottom and walked or got a cable car to it.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-cancels-visit-ancient-masada-site-after-israel-blocks-helicopter-landing-611287?amp=1

What a petty petty man.

aloyisious

Sen Cornyn, R-Texas, when asked about Don's witch-hunt claims, said basically that the Russian interfering in US domestic elections was a separate matter. I guess that's a way of telling Don off.

Overheal

Christy42 wrote: »

Saying the country is not unified is stupid. He helped split it and it is meant to be his job to unite it. He is uncomfortable at this point. He hasn't been able to swing away from this for months. He does not have the attention span for this slog and they smell blood at this point.

Another point is that the FBI had been a bigger ally than he had thought given this seems to have blown only after Comey got fired.

Absolutely. Even during Obama's terms in office, he got on Fox News on the regular to drive the wedge with the birther movement and such.

Hank Scorpio

Leroy42 wrote: »

A very noble, and correct stanch to take. We should not endlessly posit claims without direct evidence. Even massive circumstantial evidence along with continuous lying and falsehoods being out does not, of itself, prove anything.

Yet you didn't apply the same standards to HC? How very odd

That's wrong, there is evidence of pay to play with regards the Clinton foundation, the state department and actual transferring of monies. If you want me to list examples I will.

There's no evidence of the Trump campaign exchanging money to influence the election, which is what the allegation is, collusion. It's not a defense of how lewd and reckless Trump has been to want to see evidence of that before condemning him.

ThisRegard

Press conference kicking off now, looked like a bull walking out. All about drugs at the moment, a new war on drugs, and he said the wall will be a way to combat it. Lol.

Hank Scorpio

Link for anyone interested

ThisRegard

For those wondering where Trump gets his cues from
https://twitter.com/yahooleaks/status/865211336799772673

(Although I'm not convinced of its authenticity)

Overheal

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

That's wrong, there is evidence of pay to play with regards the Clinton foundation, the state department and actual transferring of monies. If you want me to list examples I will.

There's no evidence of the Trump campaign exchanging money to influence the election, which is what the allegation is, collusion. It's not a defense of how lewd and reckless Trump has been to want to see evidence of that before condemning him.

Would you argue that there is no Pay to Play in Trump's administration? You shouldn't...

aloyisious

War on drugs to continue, cocaine production is societal threat, the wall [is part of that]. Horrible drugs gangs being decimated by ICE, [gangs taken over US towns and cities. Deal between Columbia and US important to hemisphere. Venezuela mentioned in war on drugs. Thanks C/President for winning the Nobel peace prize. Columbian President thanks US for help in drugs war, and UN for help in Columbia, removal of landmines, fight against organized crime, people smuggling. better technology needed to help in fight. Likes U help as ally, invited Don on visit.

Don asks if there are any questions... Q1: what of DAG appointing SC, is it part of a witch-hunt?
No collusion, Russia nothing to do with it.

Question on what, if anything he asked of J Comey re Flynn. Answer "NO, NO" next question!

Water John

Trump did not include his campaign team in his defence, only himself.

ThisRegard

Comparing his wall to the walls in Israel.

He's obviously been coached to redirect every question about how much he needs to get back to working for the country.

But then goes off script by saying that most people dislikes Comey, that's going to bite him in the ass.

Hank Scorpio

Overheal wrote: »

Would you argue that there is no Pay to Play in Trump's administration? You shouldn't...

He said things I said about HRC were untrue and without evidence when there is evidence. It would be stupid to say there isn't any scratch my back I'll scratch yours in the new administration, but nothing on the level of 10's of millions of foreign donations to a so called foundation for political gain.

This is off topic now and irrelevant, I was just responding to his accusation. Wanting to see evidence isn't a statement of saying he's 100% innocent of collusion one way or another.

Water John

Big clamber to reset.

ThisRegard

That was a bit of an anticlimax, only notable things was him muddying Comey's name further and distancing himself from his team when he said he only speaks for himself when it comes to Russia.

Overheal

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

He said things I said about HRC were untrue and without evidence when there is evidence. It would be stupid to say there isn't any scratch my back I'll scratch yours in the new administration, but nothing on the level of 10's of millions of foreign donations to a so called foundation for political gain.

"More than a third of the almost 200 people who have met with President-elect Donald Trump since his election last month, including those interviewing for administration jobs, gave large amounts of money to support his campaign and other Republicans this election cycle.

Together the 73 donors contributed $1.7 million to Trump and groups supporting him, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission records, and $57.3 million to the rest of the party, averaging more than $800,000 per donor."

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/trump-corruption-fail-eric-trumps-pre-inauguration-pay-for-play-scheme-collapses/

"Donald Trump isn’t even president of the United States yet and already the people around him are scrambling to cash in on his electoral victory. This includes his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who got caught by the Center for Public Integrity setting up a pay-to-play charity event for their father’s inauguration that would have provided donors access to the president in exchange for $1 million.

Once exposed, the scheme quickly fell apart as the transition team insisted that no final plans had been made and Trump’s sons disassociated themselves from the shady, week-old charity organization that would have collected the donations."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/its-literally-pay-to-play-at-mar-a-lago/article/2616474

Nothing in the level eh?

Water John

ThisRegard, your on the ball. He hung all others out there.
That was legal speak. Denying all knowledge of what others may have done, on his behalf. Every man and woman for themselves. Sheriff Mueller is in town.

Overheal

Water John wrote: »

ThisRegard, your on the ball. He hung all others out there.
That was legal speak. Denying all knowledge of what others may have done, on his behalf. Every man and woman for themselves. Sheriff Mueller is in town.

If so Trump will walk away from the rubble, but at least he will have lived up to some of his promise to drain the swamp - even if all he did was fill it up a bit more and drain it a little less than that.

BabyCheeses

ThisRegard wrote: »

That was a bit of an anticlimax, only notable things was him muddying Comey's name further and distancing himself from his team when he said he only speaks for himself when it comes to Russia.

He is going to surround himself with the best to make up for his lack of experience guys.

Hank Scorpio

Overheal wrote: »

Nothing in the level eh?

Everything should be out in the open. If Trump is doing dodgy stuff then rightfully call him out on it. My issue is that nobody is ever held accountable for such actions in Government and that there's no transparency. Two wrongs don't make a right. A website like this that was recently launched is a good first step to achieving that, albeit hiding the inner workings of campaign donations and so on.

https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/Default.aspx

I do think there's a huge distinction to be made between foreign Governments and leaders donating money for Political favors than local businesses. That's Politics.

And again, I was responding to the accusation that there's no evidence of my claims about HC and the Clinton foundation accepting foreign money for influence. As of now, there's no evidence Trump colluded or received with a foreign body to influence the election. Without that accusation being proved true, he's managed to make a complete mess of the Presidency all on his own mainly due to his personality trait, mental flaws and failed messaging.

This is off topic now and I don't want to derail the thread any further.

Water John

Lots of people distinctly changing the form of defence. Great what a Special Counsel can achieve, without having started.

Jamiekelly

The only time Trump will ever be willingly silent is when he's sitting in a courtroom watching his multi-million dollar lawyers pleading the 5th on his behalf.

We can only hope.

I wonder will his molly coddled princess Ivanka and his beavis and butthead sons be doing the same? Remember, they aren't completely innocent in this either. That "I won't even speak to them about my business' once in office" line he used to protect them from himself has been shown to be a lie because of the Russia connections and that's the kind of lie that brings his whole family into question not just him.

Notice how Ivanka is no longer doing media runs and PR appearances like she did in his first two months in office. Specifically once the emoluments clause kept being brought up after his "go buy Ivanka's stuff" outburst. She knew that was a huge red flag for the DOJ/FBI to follow up on and with such extensive business ties still remaining on her own portfolio to foreign countries, she kept her head down when it came to justifying daddy's rhetoric.

She is clearly smart enough to know what could happen if she ties herself to daddy's yacht once the first shots are fired.

blackcard

Eric Bolling on Fox saying NYT journalists should be ashamed of themselves for incorrectly reporting that Coney had been told to lay off investigating Flynn.

Inquitus

blackcard wrote: »

Eric Bolling on Fox saying NYT journalists should be ashamed of themselves for incorrectly reporting that Coney had been told to lay off investigating Flynn.

So with no proof the NYT are not telling the truth but an anonymous WH denial, they brand the NYT liars and call them out.....smacks of desperation.

Ludo

Inquitus wrote: »

So with no proof the NYT are not telling the truth but an anonymous WH denial, they brand the NYT liars and call them out.....smacks of desperation.

Well it is not an anonymous WH denial now....Trump flat out denied it in the press conference this evening. So Trumps word against Comeys. Now who do I believe?

Inquitus

Ludo wrote: »

Well it is not an anonymous WH denial now....Trump flat out denied it in the press conference this evening. So Trumps word against Comeys. Now who do I believe?

If Comey wrote a contemporaneous summary of the meeting very soon after it occurred and filed it to the record, it's hard to take anyone's word over his.

Kitsunegari

Water John wrote: »

Lots of people distinctly changing the form of defence. Great what a Special Counsel can achieve, without having started.

Huh? I don't see anything changing. They still have to work from the same evidence collected to date and having the power of not having to inform the DoJ doesn't really make a difference as if Congress want to subpoena the DoJ they will for the FBI. Let's not assume anything here. There is a lot of wishful thinking going on in here.

A special counsel cannot remove Trump from office either. It would be quite difficult to present a case with tangible evidence under the Logan Act too if you want to go down the collusion route. Also, the results of the investigation may not even become public. The publication of the report is at the discretion of the Attorney General. Although the report does have to be presented to Congress.

Trump's biggest problem now is that he's turned into a complete parody figure. He's going to have to turn things around pretty quickly in order to stop the GOP from turning on him and if they don't turn on him quickly then the Republicans in the swing states will be in big trouble if this sideshow continues. Something will have to give soon. The pressure is mounting on Trump daily.

aloyisious

I'm reckoning that if some-one doesn't come forward at a Committee hearing or under subpeona by the SC to say "Don was there and heard/got involved" in reference to a specific meeting when foreign connections contrary to US election laws or the constitution were spoken of/mentioned openly as an item on the meeting's order of business [with contemporaneous notes kept] there won't be a chance of a forced resignation from Don. An insider witness more scared of prison and willing to sing is what's needed to burst the bubble. With one such witness. others would feel at threat and start singing to cover their asses in rapid turn. Some-one has to be caught [even on tape] saying something which they have denied to date.

I'd like to hear what is discussed at Spicer's meeting with senior staff on Don's tweeted comments and how the comments could be countered sensibly. I'm assuming he doesn't have direct access to Don and there's a go-between in the middle. If he did have full access to Don without any "interpreters" directing his understanding on what Don's saying, then he'd be an excellent witness, esp as his note-taking there [in order to get ideas on how to counter media/public misunderstandings] would be contemporaneous, if he didn't shred the notes but kept them as part of historical record. I don't see Spicer as being involved in any election hookery, just an excellent diarist after the fact when the post-election storm began.

Water John

Michael Scherer of Time, saying there is despondency in the WH. Lack of trust between Trump and his staff is both ways. Nobody out to bat for him in the last day or two. People not wanting to damage their own reputation.

Inquitus

Water John wrote: »

Michael Scherer of Time, saying there is despondency in the WH. Trust between Trump and his staff is both ways. Nobody out to bat for him in the last day or two. People not wanting to damage their own reputation.

How much reputation do a lot of them have left at this point?

blackcard

Inquitus wrote: »

blackcard wrote: »

Eric Bolling on Fox saying NYT journalists should be ashamed of themselves for incorrectly reporting that Coney had been told to lay off investigating Flynn.

So with no proof the NYT are not telling the truth but an anonymous WH denial, they brand the NYT liars and call them out.....smacks of desperation.

Apparently Comey stated on May 3 stated that it would be a big deal if the FBI had been told to lay off an investigation and that it had not happened. Bolling took this to mean Comey was lying and the NYY should be ashamed of themselves. However, Comey was responding to a question about DOJ officials interfering with an investigation.