US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6864

On February 14 2017 07:55 GreenHorizons wrote:


It's consistent across several states, red and blue. State candidates got jack from HVF. The overwhelming majority went back into campaign efforts for Hillary, circumventing the contribution limits.

On February 14 2017 08:02 GreenHorizons wrote:


Has it crossed your mind that perhaps they were saying "trust us" because we wouldn't like what we saw if they were transparent?

Or more accurately, that it would undermine the narrative they were trying to portray about Hillary doing so much more for these other candidates that were by all appearances given a pittance of the funds.

Amid reports that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn might be forced out of his post, President Trump managed to escape being asked about the controversy at his press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

With no definitive statement from the president, confusion reigned over Flynn’s future. Trump’s close aide Kellyanne Conway went on MSNBC to say Flynn had the “full confidence” of the president, but later in the afternoon, press secretary Sean Spicer said the president was still “evaluating the situation.”

On February 14 2017 10:02 Nevuk wrote:
I'm just wondering, whatever happened to Chris Christie?

On February 14 2017 10:04 LegalLord wrote:

His poor reputation cost him any chance of having a place in the new administration.

On February 14 2017 10:44 LegalLord wrote:

Maybe he and Hillary can be cellmates.

The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.

The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that ­Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the Russian diplomat, had told Vice ­President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the information.

In the waning days of the Obama administration, James R. Clapper Jr., who was the director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, shared Yates’s concerns and concurred with her recommendation to inform the Trump White House. They feared that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position” and thought that Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, according to one of the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

...

U.S. intelligence reports during the 2016 presidential campaign showed that [Russian ambassador] Kislyak was in touch with Flynn, officials said. Communications between the two continued after Trump’s victory on Nov. 8, according to officials with access to intelligence reports on the matter.

Kislyak, in a brief interview with The Post, confirmed having contacts with Flynn before and after the election, but he declined to say what was discussed.

For Yates and other officials, concerns about the communications peaked in the days after the Obama administration on Dec. 29 announced measures to punish Russia for what it said was the Kremlin’s interference in the election to help Trump.

After the sanctions were rolled out, the Obama administration braced itself for the Russian retaliation. To the surprise of many U.S. officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Dec. 30 that there would be no response. Trump praised the decision on Twitter.

Fox & Friends host Heather Nauert was spotted at the White House last week, reportedly because she was interviewing for a job in the Donald Trump administration.

Axois’ Mike Allen first reported the news in a story about how White House communications staffers, among others, felt their job security was on the line. “Heather Nauert… was spotted at the White House last week — talking to Trump, we’re told, about a communications job…” Allen wrote Monday morning. “That certainly doesn’t make embattled West Wing officials feel any more secure as they try to put out what one called ‘400 fires a day.'”

Allen notes that after the interview, Nauert pointedly tweeted out an image of herself wearing Ivanka Trump‘s clothing line.