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It's an interesting thought, but it would be extremely reckless for Obama to do this with the hope of undermining Trump. Trump and those sympathetic to him cou

by GVIrish 10y ago

It's an interesting thought, but it would be extremely reckless for Obama to do this with the hope of undermining Trump. Trump and those sympathetic to him could easily use the power of the intelligence apparatus to punish anyone who opposes him. We've already seen Congress pass a measure allowing them to reduce any federal employee's salary to $1. There's also a bill that would make future federal employees at-will hires that the president can fire. Imagine the climate of fear and intimidation that can be created if the president can fire anyway and has access to a massive surveillance complex that monitor all manner of digital communications. Now maybe Obama knows something we don't, maybe he knows there really is damning information about Trump out there that just needs to find its way to the right hands. But even if that is the case, a more powerful surveillance state is not going to police itself, nor weaken itself even if Trump gets pushed out.

gspetr 10y ago
> Now maybe Obama knows something we don't, maybe he knows there really is damning information about Trump out there that just needs to find its way to the right hands. Makes no sense. If he did, a couple of months ago would have been the best time for it to come out.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  We don't have to assume Obama knew about it back then. The spooks could have been keeping it in their pocket for December-intelligence-briefing leverage. In years past, they haven't had to worry about who was president, because they had a degree of control over each one. Now that it's clear that Trump DGAF, they're desperately circulating all the dirty laundry they have or can manufacture, but perhaps to no avail?
- GVIrish 10y ago
  As the sibling comment said, maybe things only came to Obama's attention recently. There could be information that intelligence personnel were pursuing but felt like they needed to escalate to the president given other information that has come to light. Could be people with a grudge. Could be that they were pursuing rumors but then recently found more substance to those rumors. All things considered I think there's a decent possibility that President Trump has more skeletons in the closet that haven't been outed yet.

by GVIrish 10y ago

gspetr 10y ago

> Now maybe Obama knows something we don't, maybe he knows there really is damning information about Trump out there that just needs to find its way to the right hands. Makes no sense. If he did, a couple of months ago would have been the best time for it to come out.

jessaustin 10y ago
We don't have to assume Obama knew about it back then. The spooks could have been keeping it in their pocket for December-intelligence-briefing leverage. In years past, they haven't had to worry about who was president, because they had a degree of control over each one. Now that it's clear that Trump DGAF, they're desperately circulating all the dirty laundry they have or can manufacture, but perhaps to no avail?
GVIrish 10y ago
As the sibling comment said, maybe things only came to Obama's attention recently. There could be information that intelligence personnel were pursuing but felt like they needed to escalate to the president given other information that has come to light. Could be people with a grudge. Could be that they were pursuing rumors but then recently found more substance to those rumors. All things considered I think there's a decent possibility that President Trump has more skeletons in the closet that haven't been outed yet.