Trump, Now Acknowledging Russian Interference, Says It's Aimed At Helping Dems

[smilesammich 10,727]

trump is pretty predictable..

 

Quote

President Trump resumed acknowledging Russian election interference on Tuesday and said he fears that this year it will benefit Democrats.

Trump, who goes back and forth about what he accepts about the years-long campaign of "active measures" against the West, now says the cyberattacks, online agitation and other techniques could be turned against him and Republicans in the 2018 congressional races.

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election," he wrote on Twitter. "Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!"

It wasn't immediately clear whether Trump's warning reflected an intelligence briefing he has received about actual Russian activity or whether he was simply "trolling people," as House Speaker Paul Ryan put it on Tuesday.

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/24/631887290/trump-now-acknowledging-russian-interference-says-its-aimed-at-helping-dems

[Unidentified 2,930]

Can he ever make up his mind about anything? 

[smilesammich 10,727]

20 minutes ago, Unidentified said:

Can he ever make up his mind about anything? 

being the toughest president on russia ever means he has to stay malleable in public.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, smilesammich said:

trump is pretty predictable..

 

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/24/631887290/trump-now-acknowledging-russian-interference-says-its-aimed-at-helping-dems

 

   Russia often favors the Democratic candidate. Usually because the Republican candidate is more hawkish and anti-Russia. The anti McCain and Romney propaganda on Russian TV was actually funny to watch, although not really based in reality. It just happened to be the other way around in 2016.

 

   If Trump's could get past his giant ego, there is actually a bigger reason to find out what the Russians did and what measures we need to institute to minimize this next time around.  Any other president in our history would have wanted to get to the bottom of this. 

[smilesammich 10,727]

2 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   Russia often favors the Democratic candidate. Usually because the Republican candidate is more hawkish and anti-Russia. The anti McCain and Romney propaganda on Russian TV was actually funny to watch, although not really based in reality. It just happened to be the other way around in 2016.

 

   If Trump's could get past his giant ego, there is actually a bigger reason to find out what the Russians did and what measures we need to institute to minimize this next time around.  Any other president in our history would have wanted to get to the bottom of this. 

yep.

 

 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

11 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   Russia often favors the Democratic candidate. Usually because the Republican candidate is more hawkish and anti-Russia. The anti McCain and Romney propaganda on Russian TV was actually funny to watch, although not really based in reality. It just happened to be the other way around in 2016.

 

   If Trump's could get past his giant ego, there is actually a bigger reason to find out what the Russians did and what measures we need to institute to minimize this next time around.  Any other president in our history would have wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Oh, you mean like Obama did, when it happened on his watch?

[smilesammich 10,727]

4 minutes ago, Satisfied said:

Oh, you mean like Obama did, when it happened on his watch?

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/10/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-barack-obama-did-nothing-about-r/

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 minute ago, Satisfied said:

Oh, you mean like Obama did, when it happened on his watch?

 

   Obama failed to stop it from happening in 2016, so we can lay some blame there yes. I don't recall Obama dismissing the heads of all of his intelligence agencies and discrediting their findings the way Trump did. In fact, it's interesting to imagine the reaction of the MDR if Obama tried to do what Trump did. 

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

30 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   Russia often favors the Democratic candidate. Usually because the Republican candidate is more hawkish and anti-Russia. The anti McCain and Romney propaganda on Russian TV was actually funny to watch, although not really based in reality. It just happened to be the other way around in 2016.

 

   If Trump's could get past his giant ego, there is actually a bigger reason to find out what the Russians did and what measures we need to institute to minimize this next time around.  Any other president in our history would have wanted to get to the bottom of this. 

except the one that was president when it happened 

[Steeleballz 7,550]

3 minutes ago, Nature Boy Flair said:

except the one that was president when it happened 

 

   ....and the other became president after it was discovered and was being investigated.  Are you suggesting Obama should have investigated it before it happened?

 

  I would blame Obama for knowing Putin would do something like this and not having stronger security measures in place at the time. The blame for impeding the investigation of what did happen will fall on Trump. 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

1 hour ago, smilesammich said:

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/10/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-barack-obama-did-nothing-about-r/

So Obama, who is known to draw lines in the sand that anyone can cross, told Putin in person to back off.  And that did... nothing.  (Well duh)

 

Then, AFTER the election, when Trump upset the applecart by winning, then Obama kicked out 35 suspected agents.  Better than nothing, but too little too late.

[smilesammich 10,727]

2 minutes ago, Satisfied said:

So Obama, who is known to draw lines in the sand that anyone can cross, told Putin in person to back off.  And that did... nothing.  (Well duh)

 

Then, AFTER the election, when Trump upset the applecart by winning, then Obama kicked out 35 suspected agents.  Better than nothing, but too little too late.

Quote

Then-CIA Director John Brennan gave a similar warning to his Russian counterpart, Federal Security Bureau Director Alexander Bortnikov, during an August phone call.

On Oct. 7, the Obama administration publicly identified Russia for the first time as being behind election-related hacks, issuing a joint statement from Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence.

In the days following that statement, Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Vice President Joe Biden said the administration was considering options for a "proportional" response.

Also, throughout August and up through the election, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson encouraged state-level election officials, through official statements and phone calls, to protect voting-related systems from cyber intrusions.

However, the Obama administration took its most significant actions against Russia after Nov. 8. In late December, Obama ordered 35 Russian diplomats and suspected intelligence agents to leave the United States, and he also imposed narrow sanctions on some Russian individuals and organizations.

"While I don’t think it’s fair to say that the administration ‘did nothing,’ their actions were fairly minimal prior to Nov 8," said Emma Ashford, an international security expert at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Ashford and a couple other experts in U.S.-Russia relations told us that the Obama administration felt like it had few options prior to the election because of the political climate.

The Obama administration likely waited until after the election to take any truly punitive measures because they "wanted to avoid the appearance of interfering in the election, and because they felt it was probably up to the next administration to deal with this policy problem," Ashford said.

The White House had to consider the fact that acknowledging Russia’s involvement could actually help Russia get closer to its goal of delegitimizing the election, said Yoshiko Herrera, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And there was also the possibility that retaliating could provoke Russia to take more action against the United States in a variety of arenas, including Syria.

Herrera added that it’s quite possible the Obama administration and intelligence community took additional action against Russia that the public doesn’t know about because it’s classified.

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by smilesammich

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Just like they have been doing for how many years now?  Roughly?

[JimandChristy 1,689]

[Dashinka 24,497]

15 hours ago, smilesammich said:

 

You forgot to mention the stand down order that was given to the cyber security chief from the Obama team.

 

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-cyber-chief-confirms-stand-order-russian-cyberattacks/