Clinton campaign chief: Did Trump, Russians collude?

[TomCADem]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman said Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump's campaign may have colluded with the Russian government over hacked e-mails in an effort to swing the election.

* * *
"What did 'Trump Inc.' know, and when did they know it?" Podesta said. "Were they in touch with the Russians? I think those are still open questions, and the electors have a right to know what the answers are — if the United States government has those answers — before the election."

While many pundits have said the Russians wanted to discredit the U.S. election process but did not necessarily aim to elect Trump, Podesta cited examples of direct contacts: Russian diplomats' statements that they were speaking to the Trump campaign; Trump adviser Roger Stone's comments in August that Wikileaks had Podesta's e-mails before they were released; and meetings in Russia before the Republican National Convention between a Trump foreign policy adviser and Russian intelligence officials.

All of that points to the need for an independent investigation, Podesta said — something Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Sen. John McCain endorsed Sunday by calling for a select committee. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected that idea in favor of a probe by the existing Senate Committee on Intelligence.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/12/18/clinton-campaign-chief-did-trump-russians-collude/95584106/

[Guyechka]

1. Yes, they did!

I firmly believe that is what these investigations are headed toward.

[Sunlei]

19. there are no 'investigations' yet. Republicans don't seem concerned to ask for any.

[cstanleytech]

24. Oh I am positive that they are concerned but its more of a concern that

if an investigation should take place that it might blow up and some of the shit the Republicans have been engaged in might come to light not to mention they are concerned over the emails Russia stole from the RNC especially if they dont get rid of the sanctions on Russia.

[Guyechka]

32. sorry...

CIA, FBI, NSA, etc investigations, not congressional. McCain acts like he is going to do his own investigation if the rest of the repukes don't want to join him.

[SHRED]

2. Wouldn't the CIA or FBI know this by now?

If there was collusion? Direct contact?

If Obama knows this it will be hard to forgive the silence.

[SeattleVet]

3. The dream scenario:

They do know, have hard proof, and as soon as tRump says, 'So help me, Me' at the inauguration they snap handcuffs on his upraised arm and haul him away.

[chimpymustgo]

4. It's a dream, all right. A beautiful, but impossible dream. nt

[Mr. Evil]

5. Why wait?

Arrest the Orange Shitgibbon Cheeto Traitor now.

[mchill]

26. And Pence too

[lastone]

12. I hope your correct!

That would be a thing of beauty indeed.

[totodeinhere]

21. Once he is inaugurated he will gain immunity from prosecution as a sitting president.

The only recourse would be impeachment. That would require the highly unlikely cooperation of the House Republican majority.

[cstanleytech]

25. Ya, he could shoot someone in the face like Cheney did and skate away especially if the

Secret Service does its usually coverup bit.

[Kingofalldems]

15. I am sure any contact was indirect but criminal nonetheless.

[doc03]

20. If it is known it is too explosive an issue the American people will never

get the truth. It is like the Kennedy assassination, I don't believe the official version and never will.

[MissKat]

6. The wrongness of everything

Something is wrong. We all know this.
This was not a normal election.
My fear is if we don't scream "STOP!" it will be just like W's appointment by the Supreme Court-- over and done with before we know what happened.

Every poll, every pundit had Hillary winning EASILY.
Something is so very wrong.

You can see it on Obama's face. What does he know and when did he know it?
Is it possible that Trump is a traitor? (in addition to being unbalanced?)

I'm telling you, I feel like a bird that has flown into a window. And this sense of dread is unlike any I've experienced before.

[snort]

10. You're not alone.

[C Moon]

18. Same exact thoughts I've been having about all of this. Something is very wrong.

It's been so obvious since election night: watching that night unfold, I knew something was being done illegally.

[doc03]

22. Every time I hear Trump talk I just can't comprehend how anyone could

vote for him. I can only credit it to some kind of national mental disorder or some evil entity. I wonder if the people in Germany felt this way when Hitler took over? I see the old newsreels of Hitler and the parallels are frightening.

[karynnj]

29. I agree that Clinton losing was a shock, but there were some clues that it could happen

Remember on DU how Nate Silver was blasted for lowering the percent chance that Clinton would win to some number in the 60s. His explanation was that there were several states that had moved to close races -- and he pointed out that usually when this happens - they move in the same direction. (Remember 2006 Senate - where the Sunday before not even Joe Biden suggested the Democrats could take the Senate. Other than TN, we ran the board - with every close race going to us.)

We saw the national numbers for Clinton go from double digits to polls that on average showed 2 to 3 percent. Note that she DID get 2 to 3 % more than Trump - so those national polls were not wrong. There were a few comments from DC insiders that the Clintons firming up Michigan by visiting at the end suggested they were not sure of it in the last weeks. I ignored them as I did many random tweets on the election.

From the articles written to explain what happened in those three states, it seems that they saw a potential problem in those last weeks when the national polls went from 10 plus points to 2 - 3 points.

Now, you can look at when that large shift happened -- and it was the first Comey letter. That letter refocused attention on the email and a possible renewed investigation became the lead story replacing what had been a few weeks of stories that should have destroyed any chance for Trump - his illegal racist actions not renting to blacks and his absolutely atrocious behavior with women.

It was the email story in March 2015 that both raised HRC's perception of being dishonest and untrustworthy and made her unfavorables higher than her favorables. Before that her favorables had risen over her years as Secretary - even after the Republican attacks on Benghazi. It looked like the email issue had done all the damage it could -- and she was leading by 10 points 3 weeks before the election. Her unfavorables were still high, but it looked like she would win against a candidate with his own even higher unfavorables. It looked like people like me who had worried that it was risky not to find a nominee without this baggage were wrong.

One shock on election night was that Trump got far over half of the people who had unfavorable opinions of both of them. I had searched before the election to see if any pollster asking both the head to head question and the favorability questions bothered to cross tab them. After all, they had that data and it sure seems to be an interesting question. I never found it. What I wonder is whether anyone will go back to their raw data and cross tab who the people who saw both as unfavorable said they were for in the last month and a half before the election. Were they the undecideds - who were higher than in past elections - or did they shift between the two when the coverage was more HRC's problems vs Trump's.

I suspect that this election will be studied extensively, both by partisans and by scholars. The latter will be far more interesting. One thing is clear - as people very close to me have long said re 2004 - the voters had a very clear choice between two very different candidates.

[gordianot]

7. The question that must be remembered did his voters know or suspect?

If so, they are in collusion with a traitor by way of past treaties. If that is what they want and the office that negotiates treaties this Democracy is in full failure. It is becoming clearer every day many Trump voters do not have a clue or care.

[AlexSFCA]

8. no doubt

IMO, there is litte doubt and that's why trump is denying CIA reports outright.

Obama said he will release final report to the public before he leaves office and it is very possible that trump's connection to russia will be there spelled out. This wil gurantee horrendous inaguaration for trump with chief justice, Roberts, may be not on board with trump. Pipe dream, perharps, but also a very real possibility.

Alternatively, the findings may lay out his upcoming impeachment case. It's all about raising a doubt in the minds of vast majority of Americans and many republican officials, deligitimizing his presidency.

[HAB911]

9. Lock him up! n/t

[JudyM]

28. +1. Crooked Trumplery.

[Chemisse]

11. Frankly, I doubt it.

Russia didn't need Trump's help or input to accomplish this.

You don't tell the dumb, whiny, self-absorbed blabbermouth a big secret.

[enid602]

30. russians

Trump may not have been privy to secrets and may not have colluded with Putin, but he may have received and/or borrowed hundreds of millions from the Russians. That would be a small price to pay for the Ukraine alone. Equually damaging, they may have Trump's financial/tax and mental and physical health records to use for extortion purposes.

[Chemisse]

31. I totally agree.

And besides all that, Trump is so easy for Putin to manipulate.

[Emilybemily]

13. Yes

[triron]

14. knr

[Sunlei]

16. trump through Republicans close to his campaign. Don't forget the old mayor catching fbi 'leaks'

[ffr]

17. Unacceptable. GOP spent how many years on Benghazi and this doesn't warrant investigation?

FCUK THE GOP COMRADES!

Sell outs!

[TeamPooka]

23. Republicans collude with our enemies all the time to win our elections. Nixon did with Vietnam

Reagan did with the Iranians
So I'm sure Trump did with the Russians too.

[ramapo]

27. Nixon got away with treason, so will Trump

But every dog has its day.

[Wernothelpless]

33. This has been out there for months ... is this part of investigation?

[link:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html|

"In late July, one of these scientists—who asked to be referred to as Tea Leaves, a pseudonym that would protect his relationship with the networks and banks that employ him to sift their data—found what looked like malware emanating from Russia. The destination domain had Trump in its name, which of course attracted Tea Leaves’ attention. But his discovery of the data was pure happenstance—a surprising needle in a large haystack of DNS lookups on his screen. “I have an outlier here that connects to Russia in a strange way,” he wrote in his notes. He couldn’t quite figure it out at first. But what he saw was a bank in Moscow that kept irregularly pinging a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html