House Republicans said Russia didnt try to help Trump win the election. Now theyre backtracking.

[babylonsister]

House Republicans said Russia didn’t try to help Trump win the election. Now they’re backtracking.
Republicans may be bowing to public pressure.
By Zachary Fryer-Biggs Mar 14, 2018, 6:50pm EDT


Two days ago, the Republican leadership of the House Intelligence Committee made a startling claim: The US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia tried to help President Trump win the White House was flatly wrong.

Now, leading GOP members of the panel — including its chair — are already walking away from the claim and grudgingly admitting the Kremlin worked to undermine Hillary Clinton and boost Trump.

“Everyone gets to make their own mind whether or not they are trying to hurt Hillary or help Trump,” Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), who led the House intelligence probe, said to reporters on Tuesday. “It is kind of the glass half-full, glass half-empty, depending how you look at it.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) — best known for his investigations into the deadly 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya — said Tuesday that Putin had been “motivated in whole or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her presidency had she prevailed.”

Gowdy spokesperson Amanda Gonzalez told me Wednesday that the Congress member didn’t see a difference between liking Trump and hating Clinton — which means that Gowdy is backing away from the Republican claim even more explicitly than Conaway.

“In a binary race, hoping one candidate will lose is tantamount to hoping the other candidate prevails,” Gonzalez said.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who has served on the committee since 2015, told Vox that the original Republican assertion that Moscow hadn’t tried to help Trump may not even make it into the final report. A 150-page draft report was sent to Democrats Tuesday; it’s not clear when it will be made public, nor what changes — if any — Republicans will agree to make beforehand.

more...

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/14/17121072/republican-house-intelligence-committee-trump-russia-collusion

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. nunes, meet bus

Ghazi Gowdy has the same credibility as the rest of the House GOPers -- zero.

Like watching drowning rats climb on each other to get out.

[pbmus]

3. Reminded me of a scene from

[UTUSN]

2. NOTE to a-hole CONNAWAY: Helping with the full/empty thing: You're FULL a-hole

[KPN]

4. +1

Yep, and we've made up our mind about that.

[exboyfil]

5. These folks should not even be put in charge of a convenience store

let alone the entire country.