Liberal Forum

Misty » 09 Jun 2017 2:17 pm » wrote:Once again 45 throws one of his own people under the bus.

The Sessions hearing shows who’s really colluding with Russia
By Marc A. Thiessen June 14 at 10:34 AM
According to the U.S. intelligence community, Russia’s objectives in meddling in the 2016 election included not only hurting Hillary Clinton’s chances but also undermining “public faith in the U.S. democratic process,” “impugning the fairness of the election” and calling into question “the U.S.-led liberal democratic order.” If the spectacle of the past few months is any indication, Russian leader Vladi­mir Putin is certainly succeeding in these latter goals.

And here is the great irony: Those who are falsely claiming that Trump was under FBI investigation for collusion with Moscow are, in fact, the ones inadvertently colluding with Putin to undermine American democracy.

Case in point is the campaign of McCarthyite character assassination on display in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday. No doubt Putin was smiling as Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to rebut what he correctly called “appalling and detestable” accusations that he colluded with the Russians and lied to the Senate.

For months, Democrats (a.k.a. “The Resistance”) have been spinning the false narrative that President Trump was under FBI investigation to call into question the validity of his presidency. In March, Democrats used it as a pretext to argue that Trump did not have the legitimacy to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) declared in a floor speech that the Senate should not vote on Neil Gorsuch’s nomination because Republicans “stopped a president who wasn’t under investigation” from filling the seat. Two days later, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the same thing, declaring, “The FBI has revealed that the sitting president of the United States is under investigation. And it raises a really, I think, important question and that is whether or not a president who is under investigation by the FBI ought to be ramming through a Supreme Court nominee that would have a lifetime appointment.”

The media gleefully echoed these false claims. The day before Comey testified, CNN blared: “In testimony, Comey will dispute President Trump’s blanket claim that he was told he wasn’t under investigation.” In fact, Comey said precisely the opposite. When Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) asked, “While you were director, the president of the United States was not under investigation. Is that a fair statement?” Comey replied: “That’s correct.” Even then, CNN was not willing to concede its error, declaring in a so-called “correction” that “Comey does not directly dispute that Trump was told multiple times he was not under investigation” (emphasis added).

No, Comey did not fail to “directly dispute” it, he directly confirmed it. The CNN story — and its non-correction correction — was “fake news.”

...Not only that, Comey also testified that Trump never tried to get him to stop the probe into Russia’s election meddling, which Comey explained was a separate matter from the FBI’s investigation of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Not only did Trump not ask Comey to stop the probe, the former FBI director told Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), “He went farther than that. He said, and if some of my satellites did something wrong, it’d be good to find that out.” Rubio pressed Comey, asking whether he was testifying that Trump effectively said, “Do the Russia investigation. I hope it all comes out. I have nothing to do with anything Russia. It’d be great if it all came out, people around me were doing things that were wrong.” Comey replied, “That was the sentiment he was expressing. Yes, sir.”
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