UPDATE #5: Traitor.
—–
UPDATE #4: As James Fallows writes for The Atlantic, the moment of truth is at hand for Congressional Republicans:
There are exactly two possible explanations for the shameful performance the world witnessed on Monday, from a serving American president.
Either Donald Trump is flat-out an agent of Russian interests—maybe witting, maybe unwitting, from fear of blackmail, in hope of future deals, out of manly respect for Vladimir Putin, out of gratitude for Russia’s help during the election, out of pathetic inability to see beyond his 306 electoral votes. Whatever the exact mixture of motives might be, it doesn’t really matter.
Or he is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, and narcissistic that he did not realize that, at every step, he was advancing the line that Putin hoped he would advance, and the line that the American intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement agencies most dreaded…
…with every hour that elapses after this shocking performance in Helsinki without Republicans doing anything, the more deeply they are stained by this dark moment in American leadership.
—–
UPDATE #3: Arizona Sen. John McCain with harsh words for President Trump:
Today’s press conference in #Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.
My full statement on the #HelsinkiSummit: https://t.co/lApjctZyZl
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 16, 2018
—–
UPDATE #2: From the editorial board of the Washington Post:
In Helsinki, Mr. Trump again insisted “there was no collusion” with Russia. Yet in refusing to acknowledge the plain facts about Russia’s behavior, while trashing his own country’s justice system, Mr. Trump in fact was openly colluding with the criminal leader of a hostile power.
—–
UPDATE: Sen. Cory Gardner breaks his silence, and, well, just wow:
I encourage the Administration to avoid the mistakes of past Administrations in normalizing relations with Russia at zero cost to Putin and his regime.
— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) July 16, 2018
We had to verify this isn’t a parody account. It’s not. Donald Trump made a mockery of Sen. Cory Gardner’s advice on dealing with Russia (below) today, and Cory Gardner responded by attacking Barack Obama.
It would be funny, just gut-busting comedy, if this was not such a serious matter.
—–
Politico reports as everyone with even a passing interest in the continued sovereignty of the United States–that’s every American, we sincerely hope–picks their jaws up off the floor:
President Donald Trump on Monday publicly sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies, refusing to condemn the Kremlin for interference in the 2016 election and saying that “I don’t see any reason” to believe that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic computer servers.
Trump’s remarkable statement, during a joint news conference in Helsinki, Finland, after holding a two-hour one-on-one meeting with Putin, came after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians on Friday over allegations of involvement in the state-ordered election-interference operation…
Trump was directly asked at one point whether he believed the U.S. intelligence agencies, which concluded Russia carried out the hacking of Democratic servers, or Putin, who has said it did not. Trump acknowledged that his own intelligence chiefs “think it’s Russia.”
“I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump went on. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server. But I have confidence in both parties.”
The aghast reaction to this astounding statement from President Donald Trump, defying the mountain of evidence to the contrary and even the indictments last Friday of numerous Russian intelligence agents for their role in subverting the 2016 elections to assist Trump, is at least somewhat bipartisan:
I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) July 16, 2018
For the President to side with Putin over his own intelligence officials and blame the United States for Russia’s attack on our democracy is a complete disgrace.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) July 16, 2018
Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections.
This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves. (1/3)
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 16, 2018
As of this writing, though, there’s no public reaction from Sen. Cory Gardner, but Gardner’s lip service to accountability at a campaign event last Friday left little in the way of wiggle room even for Colorado’s most infamously wiggly Senator:
When President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Finland, he should hold the foreign leader accountable for his country’s destructive and illegal behavior, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Friday…
Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea and continuing cyber aggression against the U.S., among other things, should land the country on a list of state sponsors of terror, said Gardner, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“The president needs to be very firm,” Gardner said. “If he’s going to meet with (Putin) at all, it’s got to be about our objections to his malign activities.”
Today’s summit, to put it mildly, does not appear to have passed Gardner’s firmness test.
Trump’s shocking rejection in Vladimir Putin’s presence of the conclusion of the entire U.S. intelligence community, whose findings were backed up by the GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee, is the clearest sign yet that Trump has no intention of doing anything to address a foreign government’s successful campaign to subvert an American election–an absolutely unprecedented situation that former CIA director John Brennan calls “nothing short of treasonous.”
Though unprecedented, this cannot be considered unexpected, even by devoted sycophants like Cory Gardner, given that Trump has denied the facts of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections at every step. The real problem for Republicans, the part they can’t acknowledge, is that they too were beneficiaries of the Russians’ operation to boost Trump, and to acknowledge this fact would inevitably weaken Trump’s legitimacy as President–and by extension, the Republican Party’s unchallenged control of the federal government.
Make no mistake, folks. Something very bad is happening to our country. For Republicans, at least the ones with any conscience or even patriotism left, the surprise victory of 2016 is now the worst-case scenario for their party.
Putin’s victory is now total.
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Can't we just all get along like they do in the billionaire network?
Were any quakes reported in the Simi Valley this morning?
I cannot imagine that Ronald Reagan is not gyrating in his grave right now.
The Koch brothers do not care about relations with Russia. All they care about is lowering taxes to zero.
Cory's focus in life is very simple.
The Koch brothers owe the seeds of their fortunes to the USSR.
Poor Cory. Trump had no intention of being firm with Putin. Trump was there solely to get Putin's commendation for good work done to date, on Russia's behalf, and to get further instructions.
Somebody somewhere, sooner or later, has to leak exactly what Putin has on Trump that makes Trump so subservient to Russian interests.
Trump wanted Putin to be firm. If you look at the photos, you can see that he is salivating.
No. Bad GG. The worst. Yuck!
Given all we know about from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Mueller indictments, what would a Republican Chair of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy
have to say about this? A more developed statement, shown in a photo on Twitter:
Twitter comment
I'm sure Cory believes that he is playing some kind of 3D psychological chess – trying to get Trump to behave appropriately based on Trump's knee-jerk antipathy to anything Obama.
But truly, Cory, if ever there was a time for plain speaking, if ever you can even show yourself capable of plain speaking, that time is now.
Here's a question: Who is persuaded by this that everything's fine with Russia? Who is Cory's audience and what does he want his audience to believe or do?
Cory Gardner: Spineless weasel.
President Donald Trump today announced the U.S. will sell Alaska back to Russia for $10 million dollars.
"We paid just $7.2 million when we bought Alaska, so this sale represents a profit of more than 100 percent," Trump said.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell noted that Trump's math was wrong. The $7.2 million the U.S. Paid in 1867 would be worth more than $150 million in today's dollars.
" That's fake math and fake news, " Trump replied. "I made a brilliant deal!"
Russia n President Vladimir Putin said Russia accepted Trump's offer, on the condition that Sarah Palin was not included in the deal.
I think that Putin and Palin would be a match made in hell. They deserve each other.
Please, everyone – contact Bennet and Gardner plus your Congressperson and demand that this orange, treasonous lunatic be impeached.
That is an exercise in futility for every Colorado U.S. Rep except perhaps one who happens to reside in, and represent, the City of Aurora. (The 3 Dems either already support impeachment or would. Stillborn, Cowboy Boots Buck and the other idiot will support Trump to the end.)
Will MAGAt-anus come here to tell us how our so-called "President" taking the side Russia, lead by despot Vladimir Putin over America will MAGA. We're waiting.
Hey Nutter….when you crawl out from under your rock today after counting all your new-found fortunes from the tax cut, be ready to respond to this: (seems not-all-that-long-ago Cory was very concerned about our deficits):
Trump Trillion-Dollar Budget Deficits Officially Begin This Week
This stuff is even beyond Moderatus' ability to spin. They will need to call in Andrew Carnegie for this.
Any word from Powerful Pear on this?
Koopholio couldn't spin if he were on a tilt-a-whirl.
If anybody can blame Democrats for this it is Andrew. Hands down.
I flipped to Fox a few minutes ago to see how it was spinning the unspinable and nearly fell off the couch. Shep Smith is giving it to Trump with both barrels. I am not making this up.
Shep Smith is one of the FEW good ones over in that hell hole.
My favorite was Michael Steele, former RNC chair, who said that the press conference resembled what a KGB/FSB Handler would be doing with his Asset.
This could be runner-up:
The Atlantic has a former speechwriter for a Republican President to match James Fallows, the speechwriter for a Democrat. David Frum's take on Helsinki begins:
When Russia sends over its intelligence agents, it does not send over its worst. They’re bringing puppies. And cute kittens. They are saints. And some, I suppose, are bad people.
/sarcasm
What do you suppose would be the proper punishment for Russian "meddling" in US elections?
What do you suggest, Negev?
Man, I don't know. How did they punish us in 1996?
– economic and trade sanctions
– publish the Panama Papers- freeze assets
– executions (good guys with guns ending bad guys with guns)
– expel the Russian diplomat (spy) corps
– liberate Ukraine, pave Syria
Seize financial assets – like Trump Tower condos.
James fallows is a brilliant writer, but I can improve on his recent effort.
"Donald Trump is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, narcissistic, and flat-out an agent of Russian interests."
Trump is a TRAITOR.
Trump's kids are TRAITORS.
The RNC is full of TRAITORS
They ALL deserve a traitor's fate.
Hint… the same fate as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
First, football causes brain damage. Admit it and seek help
Prosecute, first.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/rep-coffman-on-russia-investigation-time-for-an-independent-counsel-926436931827
I cannot believe how dumb the CD6 voters are.
Seriously – this guy ?
He is the very model of a very stable genius….
Oh Randy Rainbow, we needed that.
Ah, satire in rhyme. Gilbert & Sullivan would be so proud, so happy to contribute to the attack on the Very Stable Genius.
Has Shorter Coffman weighed in on this scandal?
This sums it all up pretty well