The General 'Murican Politics Thread

[-Robin-]

#ButHerEmails

 

 

[Tani Coyote]

1 hour ago, Patticus said:

I'm sure the intelligence community will be adding this to the list of items on which to impeach Trump, as linked to be Ogilvie up above.

He just can't stop himself digging that grave, can he?

It sounds like he's emotionally fragile so a part of me wonders if he wants to be impeached just so he no longer has to deal with any of it.

He probably thought everyone would get behind him once he was the leader, but he was in for a rude awakening. He has soiled the dignity of the Presidency and this entire country with his behavior.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

1 minute ago, Lord Liquir (Ogilvie) said:

It sounds like he's emotionally fragile so a part of me wonders if he wants to be impeached just so he no longer has to deal with any of it.

He probably thought everyone would get behind him once he was the leader, but he was in for a rude awakening. He has soiled the dignity of the Presidency and this entire country with his behavior.

Nah, that's just his adult diaper while he rattles his golden manstick.

[Patticus]

It's all going down today...

Quote

Two US officials who were briefed about Trump’s disclosures last week confirmed to BuzzFeed News the veracity of the Post report, with one official noting that “it’s far worse than what has already been reported.”

One of the officials said the Senate Intelligence Committee was also briefed on Trump’s disclosures.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/trump-highly-classified-information-russians?utm_term=.hurOO8D12w#.ljjDDndAyx

I would love, love, love for the shitstorm that is the Trump administration to be dramatized after the fact. The biographies are going to be an absolute gold mine.

Aaron Sorkin, wherefore art thou?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It amazes me how Trump was largely elected out of spite (the arrogance from those on the Left notwithstanding) and this happens. Almost seems karmic in a lot of ways.

Most amazing is how this was never as jacked up with Obama. Sure he had fuck ups, but not once did he throw a Twitter tantrum, nor did he have his own intelligence community try to investigate him over something to this extent...and people just hated everything he did because...?

[Nepenthe]

23 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

and people just hated everything he did because...?

Gee.

I have no idea why people hated Obama.

I literally have no idea

what it is about him

that made a lot of people hate him.

I guess it's just a mystery.

[Patticus]

White House staff were 'hiding' tonight while another episode of Comrade Tumpski's Russian Adventure aired unexpectedly. Some of these quotes, hoo boy!

Quote

 

Communications staff and senior staffers at the White House were literally “hiding in offices,” according to a senior Trump aide, as a gaggle of White House press stormed White House hallways just after the Washington Post story broke on Monday evening.

“Do not ask me about how this looks, we all know how this looks,” the senior aide told The Daily Beast on Monday evening. Trump administration officials spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity so as to speak freely. The aide described a scene at the White House as tense and “a morgue,” where senior officials such as Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Stephen Bannon convened to sketch an immediate path forward in handling the aftermath.

...

“At this point I’m wondering if we’ll ever be able to stop talking about Russia,” a White House staffer said shortly after the Post story was published. “It’s totally self-inflicted. Every time I feel like we’re getting a handle on the last Russia fiasco, a new one pops.”

...

Some administration officials who supported Trump during the campaign said they were appalled at his apparent divulging of U.S. secrets, and considered it a break from his “America First” campaign mantra.

“With news like this I’m beginning to wonder why Trump ran in the first place and if he really cares about the country,” said a senior Trump appointee involved in counter-ISIS policymaking. “I miss candidate Trump. Now he’s just a pathetic mess.”

...

“I doubt he did it to collude [with the Russians]. I think he’s dumb and doesn’t know the difference,” a former FBI official who worked aspects of the Russia investigation told The Daily Beast. “He thinks he’s arranging some business deal except that he’s not.”

When asked if they could use info in way that harms the U.S., this official said, “of course.”

The Russians, the source added, “like [Trump’s] mental instability and stupidity. They don’t like his unpredictability.”

...

“Where are all those folks who chanted ‘lock her up’?” quipped Rep. Gerry Connolly, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in reference to a frequent Clinton-aimed chant at Trump campaign rallies.

...

Mark Zaid, a well-known national security lawyer, told The Daily Beast.

“Time after time we are seeing that our president has little to no understanding of how the intelligence system and national security apparatus works, and our biggest security vulnerability may be the one person who no one, other than Congress, can take action against,”

...

“If [The Washington Post’s story is] true, this is a slap in the face to the intel community,” said Sen. Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Risking sources & methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians.”

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/15/white-house-staff-hiding-as-russia-chaos-engulfs-west-wing

To say that the man is a liability would be the understatement of the century thus far. What's hilarious and disturbing in equal measure is the fact that the presidency visibly ages everyone who holds it, sort of like an inverse Holy Grail if you'll pardon the rickety analogy. Trump started his presidency very advanced in years - and we all know his behavior would continue to deteriorate from here if he had lost the election. Now that he's the president, he's going to get worse quite a lot faster, I feel.

[Tani Coyote]

"Texas will never turn bl-"

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/politics/texas-voter-id-law-discriminate/

Turns out last month a federal court struck down Texas' voter ID law. On top of the fact Texas had redistricting maps stuck down in March, there's a glorious implication in all this: if Texas appeals such rulings and finds them upheld by higher courts, including the Supreme Court, it is grounds for the federal government to put the whole state of Texas under a restriction for D.C. to approve changes in Texas voting laws. 

Combining this with the fact Joaquin Castro was more popular than Cruz in Texas (even if Castro recently said he is not running for Senate), Texas might be more competitive in 2018 than originally anticipated. Centrist Democrats might just have the chance to ride backlash against the AHCA and Trump to victory in numerous races.

Meanwhile, this place and this (the race is split across multiple counties oh God the gerrymandering) can be used for the results of the Georgia 32nd Senate District election to be held later today. If Triebsch (the Democrat) wins, it won't change the majority in the Senate, but it would be an enormous morale boost to the Democrats and also mean Jon Ossoff has better odds in the Georgia 6th District next month. It would, however, eliminate the Republican Senate supermajority, as they would no longer have two-thirds of the seats.

And really, what would be a better cherry on all the crap surrounding Trump than his being denied a "haha Democrats!" Tweet in the aftermath, now that the GOP loses its first state seat since he took office?

First it was Virginia and Florida, now Georgia and Texas are looking to becoming more swingy. It's worth remembering that Bill Clinton carried several Southern states once or twice in the 1992 and 1996 races. They've rejected Republican economic dogma before, they could do it again.

[CleverSonicUsername]

Quote

“With news like this I’m beginning to wonder why Trump ran in the first place and if he really cares about the country,” said a senior Trump appointee involved in counter-ISIS policymaking. “I miss candidate Trump. Now he’s just a pathetic mess.”

There is just so much to unpack in this quote, I don't even know where to begin. Probably with the fact that this ding dong is just now realizing Trump doesn't give a flying fuck about America or the people in it.

[Patticus]

After the White House spent all last night denying that it happened, Donald Trump himself has decided to clear the air. Let's see what he has to say...

He rolls out McMaster in the evening and has him tell us all that it didn't happen, then he wakes up the next morning and undercuts him immediately by tweeting that he did it.

Wow.

[Nepenthe]

Wonder how fast Trump's most ardent followers went from "Fake News!!!" to "It's fine he talked to the Russians guys." It's enough to give you whiplash.

[Tani Coyote]

If Trump is trying to gaslight the masses he's doing a poor job of it.

Goebbels said that if you repeat a lie enough people will believe it, but that's hard to do when you keep changing your lie.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

17 hours ago, Nepenthe said:

Gee.

I have no idea why people hated Obama.

I literally have no idea

what it is about him

that made a lot of people hate him.

I guess it's just a mystery.

Hmm...

Oh, I know. It's because he red, right? 

That's gotta be it...or maybe because he was a democrat? Some have said they don't see color, so they probably couldn't tell...

[Patticus]

This evening may not be as drama-filled as last night, but there are so many things going on now it's hard to keep track. I'll take it from the top...

Quote

Israeli Officials: Trump Sharing Intelligence With Russia Is "Worst Fears Confirmed"

Spoiler

Two Israeli intelligence officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News Tuesday that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the US regarding ISIS plots to smuggle explosive laptops onto planes, under the unique intelligence-sharing agreement the two countries maintain.

The revelation that Trump had shared that intelligence with Russian officials was Israel's "worst fears confirmed," said one of the intelligence officers.

"We have an arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing. We do not have this relationship with any other country," said the officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News on condition of anonymity as he was not granted permission to speak to the press.

"There is a special understanding of security cooperation between our countries," they said. "To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed."

"There has to be trust for this sort of arrangement. I cannot speak for Israel's entire security apparatus, but I would not trust a partner who shared intelligence without coordinating it with us first," said the officer.

A second intelligence officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News via encrypted app and also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the US regarding an active threat to US-bound planes. Speaking to BuzzFeed News via a military base in northern Israel, he said Israeli intelligence officers were "boiling mad and demanding answers" as to whether Israel's military would continue its current intelligence-sharing agreement with the US.

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/israeli-official-trump-sharing-intelligence-with-russia-is?utm_term=.hfg90BaGg#.nnz3ZW1DM

We could be looking at most or all of the US' allies suspending intelligence sharing with the US, due to their crumbling trust in Trump's discretion.

The biggest news story emerging tonight, though, is this. It won't soon go away, and could easily dog Trump until the midterms and beyond:

Quote

Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation

President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo that Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The existence of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.”

In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.

“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

In testimony to the Senate last week, the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, said, “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified — about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department about the conversation or his memos.

Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey last week. Trump administration officials have provided multiple, conflicting accounts of the reasoning behind Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Mr. Trump said in a television interview that one of the reasons was because he believed “this Russia thing” was a “made-up story.”

The Feb. 14 meeting took place just a day after Mr. Flynn was forced out of his job after it was revealed he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of phone conversations he had had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Despite the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey, the investigation of Mr. Flynn has proceeded. In Virginia, a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas in recent weeks for records related to Mr. Flynn. Part of the Flynn investigation is centered on his financial ties to Russia and Turkey.

Mr. Comey had been in the Oval Office that day with other senior national security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. When the meeting ended, Mr. Trump told those present — including Mr. Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to leave the room except for Mr. Comey.

Alone in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began the discussion by condemning leaks to the news media, saying that Mr. Comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.

Mr. Trump then turned the discussion to Mr. Flynn.

After writing up a memo that outlined the meeting, Mr. Comey shared it with senior F.B.I. officials. Mr. Comey and his aides perceived Mr. Trump’s comments as an effort to influence the investigation, but they decided that they would try to keep the conversation secret — even from the F.B.I. agents working on the Russia investigation — so the details of the conversation would not affect the investigation.

Mr. Comey was known among his closest advisers to document conversations that he believed would later be called into question, according to two former confidants, who said Mr. Comey was uncomfortable at times with his relationship with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Comey’s recollection has been bolstered in the past by F.B.I. notes. In 2007, he told Congress about a now-famous showdown with senior White House officials over the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The White House disputed Mr. Comey’s account, but the F.B.I. director at the time, Robert S. Mueller III, kept notes that backed up Mr. Comey’s story.

The White House has repeatedly crossed lines that other administrations have been reluctant to cross when discussing politically charged criminal investigations. Mr. Trump has disparaged the ongoing F.B.I. investigation as a hoax and called for an investigation into his political rivals. His representatives have taken the unusual step of declaring no need for a special prosecutor to investigate the president’s associates.

The Oval Office meeting occurred a little more than two weeks after Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Comey to the White House for a lengthy, one-on-one dinner in the residence. At that dinner, on Jan. 27, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey at least two times for a pledge of loyalty — which Mr. Comey declined, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.

In a Twitter posting on Friday, Mr. Trump said that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

After the meeting, Mr. Comey’s associates did not believe there was any way to corroborate Mr. Trump’s statements. But Mr. Trump’s suggestion last week that he was keeping tapes has made them wonder whether there are tapes that back up Mr. Comey’s account.

The Jan. 27 dinner came a day after White House officials learned that Mr. Flynn had been interviewed by F.B.I. agents about his phone calls with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak. On Jan. 26, Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates told the White House counsel about the interview, and said Mr. Flynn could be subject to blackmail by the Russians because they knew he had lied about the content of the calls.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=09D560E0160E1395DE3862B63E8D5DC4&gwt=pay

CNN's sources are also saying that the memo is real, as are NBC's sources. NBC has also been reporting that Comey plans to go public with the memos he kept from his meetings. Shit is going to explode when the full content of those memos comes out - though Trump's core base will doubtless brush it all off as the biased liberal media pulling out all the fake news stops to ruin the godly, wholesome, plain speaking and honest President Trump. It's hard to see how they'd ever be able to be made to see reason, though - thankfully, their numbers are small compared to the size of the electorate as a whole, which must surely be turning on Trump worse than ever by now. Can't wait to see the polling for these days come in next week and beyond.

I wouldn't expect many Republicans to vote for impeachment, though, as historically only the most liberal minded conservatives, or the most conservative Democrats, have in recent political history opposed a president of their own party during a major scandal, like Watergate, Iran-Contra or the Lewinski Affair. 538 has an in-depth analysis of this, here. So don't go expecting the majority of Republican politicians to put down their partisanship and grow a pair, because that's not how they've done things - not in a very long time, if ever.

The quote of the day has to go to the Daily Beast, for this:

Quote

A senior official in the Trump administration, who previously worked on the president’s campaign, offered a candid and brief assessment of the fallout from that string of bad press: “I don’t see how Trump isn’t completely fucked.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/16/trump-officials-on-comey-memo-dont-see-how-trump-isnt-completely-fcked

Jason Chaffetz wants those memos for the House investigation:

 

So... just how fucked is Trump now? And will this impact the midterms?

[CleverSonicUsername]

I'd say if Chaffetz changed his tune from "well I think the president is exempt from conflicts of interest" to "ok actually we need records of what he said and when he said it" then Trump is pretty fucked. If he does in fact keep tapes of his conversations like Nixon did, then it could corroborate those memos, which Comey thinks are relevant enough (see: "that would be perfect") to start bringing up.

[Rusty Spy]

The Trump administration is like a House of Cards on the San Andreas Fault during an earthquake. It's not a matter of if it will collapse, but when.

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Lol, wasn't Isreal one of the few countries that favored Trump?

Now look where it got them...

[Tani Coyote]

If the GOP stands by him as more and more evidence comes out, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of primaried candidates or them being driven from office by energized Democrats. The fact is, with his base gradually shrinking and his increasing number of scandals, he's going to be less and less valuable to the GOP. He might just be so terrible he ends up breaking the gerrymandered system the GOP tried so hard to construct.

Word from the Georgia Senate 32 race: the Republican (Kirkpatrick) defeated the Democrat (Triebsch) 57-43. This was no doubt helped by the fact that the Georgia 6th race had different relations with it: Karen Handel, the Republican, tweeted her support and reminders to vote for Kirkpatrick the last few days to her supporters, while Ossoff, the Democrat, remained quiet on the Senate race. It would be delicious if redistricting results in Ossoff losing his seat in a future race, assuming he wins next month. Democrats not paying enough attention to state legislatures is a big reason why the Party is in a mess right now.

Good news about that race, though. Back in the April primary, the Republican candidates altogether won the primary 60-40. That shift of 3 percentage points towards the Democrats makes Ossoff's bid look a little more likely to succeed. He carried 41% of the vote in Cobb County, where the bulk of the Senate district is, and if Triebsch's supporters turn out to back him in the June race, they might carry him over the finish line (this assuming they don't want revenge for his lack of support for Triebsch, which isn’t an entirely foreign concept given liberal women are a key part of both candidates’ bases and the way Ossoff basically ignored Triebsch barring a photo op a while back doesn’t look really good on him). As Ossoff's total margin was 48 to the Republican 52, any percentage swing can change the outcome.

Overall, though, we are seeing the midterm effect in full swing: Republican margins are slipping in every race so far despite being in deep red areas, and that means that close races are that much more likely to tilt towards the Democrats.

And given the raging shitstorm in Washington, it’s likely that the margin of slippage will continue to grow, jeopardizing more seats.

http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/05/14/new-poll-has-ossoff-handel-neck-and-neck-in-6th-district-runoff/

Recent polls, meanwhile, put Ossoff narrowly ahead of Handel, at 47% to her 45%, with a margin of error of 3%. It's going to be a tense race next month.

[Patticus]

NEWS FRENZY

Reader beware, you're in for a fuckton of tweets.

 

Quote

DOJ Appoints Special Counsel To Investigate Russia Ties

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.

In a statement, Rosenstein stressed that his decision “is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted.” But he said he’d determined “based upon the unique circumstances, the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself in March from Russia matters after he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing he had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doj-special-counsel-russia-trump_us_591cbfa2e4b03b485cae5465

 

 

So much to go over, so much to process! I honestly didn't foresee there being a Special Counsel appointment this side of the midterms, honestly - not with Ryan and McConell lately both so eager to support Trump. They more than likely still see him as the best way to enact their primary legislative goals. I'll bet it was Rosenstein's being thrown under the bus by the administration that pushed him towards this move.

Mueller's a good choice, too - Comey's predecessor as head of the FBI, he served for 12 years, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. He's well respected by all sides.

[Tani Coyote]

I really hope he does subpoena Trump. Even if any documents wouldn't help the investigation, we all know Trump would fight tooth and nail to avoid giving over his tax returns, and these would become his Nixon tapes. He'd then presumably turn to Gorsuch and co., only to be told that even he isn't above the law. A refusal to cooperate with an independent investigation would make Trump look even worse and make the case for impeachment and removal all the more compelling; the President's job is to enforce the law, so if he openly breaks it, he is breaking his oath and is really unfit for office.

As for enacting legislative goals. Due to how many positions he has left unfilled, almost every Department and agency is on a skeleton crew, and in many cases Obama and Bush-era appointees are serving as acting senior staff. This is because the White House has nominees first get the approval of several key people: Priebus, Bannon, Kusher, Pence's chief of staff, and several others. Because they all represent different ideologies and interests, it can take a while to get a consensus candidate. Many of these nominees, in turn, have to go before the Senate rather than simply get appointed by Trump.

Trump has made 85 nominations to the Senate at this point in his presidency as of Friday, according to the Center for Presidential Transition, which tracks presidential appointees. In that same period of his first term, President Barack Obama made 212 nominations, President George W. Bush made 161 nominations, President Bill Clinton made 182 nominations, and President George H. W. Bush made 135 nominees by this point.

Net result: Trump is lagging considerably behind every other recent President in appointments. This greatly harms his ability to enforce his agenda, and by proxy, Congress'.

Trump, of course, has argued that he doesn't need to fill many of these positions anyway, in a case of small government sour grapes. While it is likely some positions could be abolished to streamline the government, I think he's vastly overestimating how many jobs are redundant.

[Patticus]

It's worrying how badly staffed the administration is, yet it is also heartening, as it means that the damage Trump, Ryan and co can do is limited. For now.

If Trump were to be impeached, I can't see him being removed from office, as while impeachment is a House affair, removal takes a 2/3 majority in the Senate. Given how partisanship still rules the hearts of most politicians even during era-defining scandals, I don't see there being that many more-liberal-than-usual GOP Senators. Can Mueller remove Trump on his own? I know he can file charges, but removal may be quite difficult.
 

Meanwhile, more news broke yesterday...

Quote

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016 exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the U.S. Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks...This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

The remarks remained secret for nearly a year.

The conversation provides a glimpse at the internal views of GOP leaders who now find themselves under mounting pressure over the conduct of President Trump. The exchange shows that the Republican leadership in the House privately discussed Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and Trump’s relationship to Putin, but wanted to keep their concerns secret. It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally.

Source: Washington Post.

Full transcript: Link.

The GOP reacted with denials:

Quote

When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.”

After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.”

“This was a failed attempt at humor,” Sparks said.

Republicans: "Fake news! Didn't happen!"
Washington Post: "We can cite authentic audio evidence. Have a listen."
Republicans: "Did we say it was fake news? We meant it was fake comedy."

Really makes you wonder what an email hack of the RNC would dredge up, no? I mean, if the Democrats had such juicy emails, surely theirs are at least equally juicy. Anyway, I can see the recording popping up in Democratic attack ads for a good while.

 

Then the former President of Mexico trolled Trump:

Even Vladimir Putin joined in laughing at the US. Methinks that this outcome was probably his Plan B, if Plan A (having Trump drop the US' Russian sanctions, wreck NATO etc) fell apart. Although, that stuff could also still happen. Trump has made rumblings about NATO lately:

 

Also, some senators are getting sick of Sessions:

And this one quote is just terrifying:

 

And as if all of that wasn't enough, the Flynn story has returned. And it has legs. Long, runner's legs: Trump's team knew that Flynn was under investigation for working as a foreign agent for Turkey prior to making him national security adviser.

NYT link.

Pence's reaction? Well, obviously he claims not to have been made aware of any of this.

Which is a flat out lie.

Jared & Ivanka are also involved in this:

Flynn is fucked. Manafort is fucked. Roger Stone might also be fucked.

[Nepenthe]

The depth of how far this shit goes and the amount of people involved even just tangentially is mind-boggling to the point of hilarity. I honestly can't tell at this point whether we're dealing with genuine malice for the institution of American government or just sheer incompetence. It's probably both.

Also, if it gets to the point that Trump is impeached, that decision is going to happen in the Republican-led government anyway where he's become enough of a liability. It will be at that point that they will throw him under the bus to save their careers. No fucking way they shrug it off and don't actually impeach him (if he's stupid enough to not quit first). I dare them to; further show the American people just how fucking garbage y'all are.

[Tani Coyote]

I can see Trump as the guy who will refuse to resign out of stubbornness, and when the removal fails in the Senate, boast and brag about it all over Twitter.

He's in for a world of hurt if Democrats somehow manage to convince the "eh it doesn't matter who's in charge" people that yes, it kind of freaking does.

Scary thing in all this is Pence is the compromise candidate. I don't think many GOP Senators want President Ryan, so Pence is the fallback if Trump becomes too much of a liability, at least until he appoints a new Vice President the Senate can approve of.

[PSI Wind]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/net-neutrality-goes-down-in-flames-as-fcc-votes-to-kill-title-ii-rules/

Now, it still has 4 months, but this is still absolutely revolting. The FCC Chair won't even consider the public and will only look at data. Data, of course, meaning the sweet amount of cash the ISPs are giving him.

[Tani Coyote]

http://www.sltrib.com/home/5302221-155/chaffetzs-resignation-expected-soon-legislature-governor-tiff

Meanwhile, House Rep. Jason Chaffetz is planning to resign soon, prompting a battle in Utah over whether nominees in a special election should be decided by party insiders (supported by the legislature) or by democratic primaries (supported by the Governor).

Chaffetz is the chair of a committee in the House investigating Trump and who requested documents such as Comey's memo, so he was apparently unbiased in that role and this could affect the investigation.

On the other hand, Chaffetz is the guy who became infamous for saying poor people need to buy healthcare over iPhones, so good riddance on that count.

Either way, it looks like it will be many months before his seat is filled, which means the GOP majority in the House will shrink by a vote. This doesn't seem like much, but it does mean that close votes like the AHCA are unlikely to pass in the future, especially if Democrats sweep the House seats in Montana and Georgia in the coming months. The AHCA passed 217-213; the loss of Chaffetz (who backed the bill) brings that down to 216 and the Democrats are guaranteed a California seat next month. 216-214... all the Democrats need is one more pickup, and a bill like the AHCA probably won't pass again. Nobody likes to be the tiebreaking vote with controversial legislation.

The Montana election is on the 25th, so it's going to be nailbiting to see if Trump's White House going down in flames and the AHCA will be enough to flip competitive seats.