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What happens next? Assuming that Congress wants to make the actual precedent of pushing for criminal charges for perjury (hint: they don't) you would have to a

What happens next? Assuming that Congress wants to make the actual precedent of pushing for criminal charges for perjury (hint: they don't) you would have to actually establish that perjury occurred. He was asked about whether he discussed the election, not whether he discussed anything at all. The press really is running with this Russia stuff though. It's pretty impressive. What exactly is the angle? Why did Russia want Trump to win? Did he promise to hand over the Crimea or something? Does anyone know?

fatbird 10y ago
There is currently a developing story about how various players intersect in the Ukraine. The short version is the Trump lifts sanctions against Russia, a Ukranian politician named Artemenko leads the charge to oust the current Ukranian president Poroshenko on corruption charges, and Russia keeps Crimea. This was outlined in a document hand-delivered to Michael Flynn, the disgraced/resigned National Security Advisor, by Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer with massive interests in the Ukraine. It's an unholy mess and Talking Points Memo seems to be doing the best job of tracking this facet of the ongoing trainwreck. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-... There's also this fantastic New Yorker story just published that outlines the Russian position generally. Shorter: fucking with the U.S. was worth it to push back against American arrogance and to assert Russian worth on the world stage; didn't expect it to work this well. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and...
- ModernMech 10y ago
  Ah yeah, I just linked to the discussion about the New Yorker piece that aired on Fresh Air, also a great listen.
ModernMech 10y ago
> Why did Russia want Trump to win? Did he promise to hand over the Crimea or something? I was listening to this today [1], and it explained that Russia fully expected Clinton to win, and was just looking to make her presidency chaotic. You know had Hillary won, and news of Russian "hacking" reached Republicans, they would be reacting just as the Democrats are now, calling for investigations and lobbying charges of collusion with the Russians against Clinton. Trump even primed the base to accept that line of attack, calling the election rigged when it looked like he was going to lose (since that's always his reaction when he starts to lose). That Trump won came as a shock to Putin, and now after a brief honeymoon with Trump, Putin has ordered to dial back praising Trump on national media. So really, there may be no direct link between the Trump campaign and Russian meddling, but they certainly aren't doing themselves favors by lying about it. I could understand that the optics look bad, given the circumstances, but being caught lying about it looks exponentially worse, especially since sessions previously refused to recuse himself from the investigation into said contacts with Russians! [1]: https://www.npr.org/player/embed/517994347/517994380 https://www.npr.org/player/embed/517994347/517994380

fatbird 10y ago

There is currently a developing story about how various players intersect in the Ukraine. The short version is the Trump lifts sanctions against Russia, a Ukranian politician named Artemenko leads the charge to oust the current Ukranian president Poroshenko on corruption charges, and Russia keeps Crimea. This was outlined in a document hand-delivered to Michael Flynn, the disgraced/resigned National Security Advisor, by Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer with massive interests in the Ukraine. It's an unholy mess and Talking Points Memo seems to be doing the best job of tracking this facet of the ongoing trainwreck. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-... There's also this fantastic New Yorker story just published that outlines the Russian position generally. Shorter: fucking with the U.S. was worth it to push back against American arrogance and to assert Russian worth on the world stage; didn't expect it to work this well. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and...

ModernMech 10y ago
Ah yeah, I just linked to the discussion about the New Yorker piece that aired on Fresh Air, also a great listen.

ModernMech 10y ago

> Why did Russia want Trump to win? Did he promise to hand over the Crimea or something? I was listening to this today [1], and it explained that Russia fully expected Clinton to win, and was just looking to make her presidency chaotic. You know had Hillary won, and news of Russian "hacking" reached Republicans, they would be reacting just as the Democrats are now, calling for investigations and lobbying charges of collusion with the Russians against Clinton. Trump even primed the base to accept that line of attack, calling the election rigged when it looked like he was going to lose (since that's always his reaction when he starts to lose). That Trump won came as a shock to Putin, and now after a brief honeymoon with Trump, Putin has ordered to dial back praising Trump on national media. So really, there may be no direct link between the Trump campaign and Russian meddling, but they certainly aren't doing themselves favors by lying about it. I could understand that the optics look bad, given the circumstances, but being caught lying about it looks exponentially worse, especially since sessions previously refused to recuse himself from the investigation into said contacts with Russians! [1]: https://www.npr.org/player/embed/517994347/517994380 https://www.npr.org/player/embed/517994347/517994380