I am trying to think of a criminal statute for this. Attempted acceptance of a solicitation to freely provide negative facts on an opposing candidate from an individual who has no such facts and does not provide any in a 15 minute meeting. Seems to me the individual showing up for the meeting could have been alleged “Trump cheerleader” Putin himself and we still do not have a crime unless a definitive quid pro quo of government favors can be proven.Oh, that’s right, Trump was not even an elected official and had no government favors to barter.That’s a Hillary specialty.Collusion,you say. Collusion how? You mean sometime thereafter Trump allowed Putin access to DNC systems and allowed them to hack Podesta’s e mails and distribute them publicly and did not punish the Russians. Oh, that’s right Trump had no access to DNC systems and had no authority to punish the Russians. That’s an Obama thing. Was there ever a presidential candidate campaign staff in history that would not take such a meeting including Hillary and Obama?Wasn’t this called campaign politics in the old days? Now all of a sudden the DNC mouthpiece NYT is trying to create a somethinggate narrative for it.This does not even rise to the level of fake news. It is no news.
No he didn’t!!!!
Hillary was already bought and paid for.
Hillary was already bought and paid for.
Not the first time Trump has been wrong, nor will it be the last time. Trump stands out for getting some things right, but this isn’t one of them.
The US and Russia would already be exchanging shots in Syria and perhaps the EUkraine.
Of course Putin wanted the dems to win. They are the weak on defense party. They also bent over backwards to appease Putin in such critical areas as missile defenses and nukes, including the Iran nuke deal that Putin loves so much. Not to forget the Uranium One deal which handed the Russians 20% of our uranium production!
Trump with Pence pledged to substantially INCREASE military spending. A strong US military is the last thing that an expansionist Russia wants.
Putin probably wanted HilLIARy ... if only because he knows how grossly incompetent she is....from her invasion (with O) of Libya...and from her “reset button” gift to Russia
etc and etc
also, Putin and most other foreign intelligence people all must have serious files all about HilLIARy...that they could have used to compromise her if she’d won the election
Russia DID try to influence the election but they did so to help HILLARY get elected, not Trump.
The people whom you have evidence of illegality on are the ones that you TRY to get elected. For example, China-Clinton. The Trump-Russian narrative doesn’t support this.
Also Putin doesn’t like Hillary. What better way to screw her over than doing blackmail on her deleted emails?
None of the deleted or damaging Hillary emails besides DNC or Podesta ones have surfaced suggesting people that have them like the FBI or enemies want to leverage them.
Didn’t she delete over 30,000 of them? I am going out on a limb her but I think Russia HAS these deleted emails. If they were trying to damage her, why didn’t they leak them?
But think of other Russian interests.
They would like us to remove tactical nukes from Europe.
They would like us to let the military deteriorate.
They would like us to NOT develop our energy resources. A drop in oil price would have a massive impact on Russia economically.
They would not want us to build up our military intelligence.
They would not want us to develop our military technology.
They would not want us to be secure from terrorist attacks.
On each and every one of these issues, the candidate the Russians would NOT want to get elected would be Donald Trump.
I think most people who believe this story was falsified by a politicized intel community instinctively know this, but I think it is worthwhile to state it unequivocally.
Also, who do you think Russia thought would GET elected?
Almost all news including Fox thought Hillary had an 85% or higher chance. Putin doesn’t have his own people taking polls so he relies on ours.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to get the goods on her and wait until she is elected before rocking the boat?
As the turns and twists of this unending soap opera continue, I have come come to the conclusion that Russia/Putin played both ends against the middle. The resulting temult has to be better than they could have ever hoped for. It’s kind of like a political donor giving money to both sides to get a desired outcome.
It is only logical.
Trump promised to ramp up energy production and the military - the 2 primary pillars of the Reagan/Casey strategy to bankrupt and destroy the Soviet Union. These actions would have a similar effect on Russia, given that its economy is only the size of NY State, and that a good part of its military expenditures come from its foreign currency reserves (of which 2/3 are derived from sales of oil and natural gas).
Compare and contrast to Clinton, who promised to keep fossil fuel production bottled up (all the better to enrich her Arab benefactors/sources of “contributions” to the Clinton Foundation) and to not increase military expenditures. Add to that the fact that Clinton was very subject to being blackmailed due to the Uranium One deal and other transactions over the years, and you have just about the ideal American Presidential candidate (and, later, President) from the Russian P.O.V.
Putin may be very ruthless and brutal, but I don’t ever recall anyone claiming that he was either stupid or acting in the interests of any country other than his own. He’d have to be a stupid traitor to have wanted Trump. Now, of course, he has to deal with him - and at least he and Trump can respect each other and make a deal to avoid direct conflict, while perhaps working together against both the Moslems and the Chinese.
This statement by Trump is a gimme - it is SO obviously true that no one who is serious in any way can truthfully dispute it.