2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTrump's refusal to accept intelligence briefing on Russia stuns experts
The former officials, who have served presidents in both parties, say they were bewildered when Trump cast doubt on Russia's role after receiving a classified briefing on the subject and again after an unusually blunt statement from U.S. agencies saying they were "confident" that Moscow had orchestrated the attacks
"It defies logic," retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, said of Trump's pronouncements.. . . .
Several former intelligence officials interviewed this week believe that Trump is either willfully disputing intelligence assessments, has a blind spot on Russia, or perhaps doesn't understand the nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professionals. . . .
"I don't recall a previous candidate saying they didn't believe" the information from an intelligence briefing, said John Rizzo, a former CIA lawyer who served under seven presidents and became the agency's acting general counsel. "These are career people. They aren't administration officials. What does that do to their morale and credibility?"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-intelligence-briefing-russia-20161014-story.html
I think he is more than an unwitting tool of Putin. It is quite possible he is willfully conspiring with Russia.
DonCoquixote
(13,615 posts)is getting many many intelligence briefings from Russia.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,848 posts)He's received hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian oligarchs according to recent reports. They're his "friends" in that sense, but he'll turn against them in a heartbeat.
Russia views Trump as a pawn, in my opinion. It's very short-sighted because Trump would have the "nuclear football" as POTUS and he's impulsive egomaniac.
Panich52
(5,829 posts)TalkingPointsMemo
3. One example of this is the Trump Soho development in Manhattan, one of Trump's largest recent endeavors. The project was the hit with a series of lawsuits in response to some typically Trumpian efforts to defraud investors by making fraudulent claims about the financial health of the project. Emerging out of that litigation however was news about secret financing for the project from Russia and Kazakhstan. Most attention about the project has focused on the presence of a twice imprisoned Russian immigrant with extensive ties to the Russian criminal underworld. But that's not the most salient part of the story. As the Times put it,
"Mr. Lauria brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo and three other Bayrock projects by an Icelandic firm preferred by wealthy Russians in favor with President Vladimir V. Putin, according to a lawsuit against Bayrock by one of its former executives. The Icelandic company, FL Group, was identified in a Bayrock investor presentation as a strategic partner, along with Alexander Mashkevich, a billionaire once charged in a corruption case involving fees paid by a Belgian company seeking business in Kazakhstan; that case was settled with no admission of guilt."
(Snip)
... As I noted above, Trump has been blackballed by all major US banks with the exception of Deutschebank, which is of course a foreign bank with a major US presence. He has steadied and rebuilt his financial empire with a heavy reliance on capital from Russia. At a minimum the Trump organization is receiving lots of investment capital from people close to Vladimir Putin.
(Snip)
4. Then there's Paul Manafort, ...
5. Trump's foreign policy advisor on Russia and Europe is Carter Page, a man whose entire professional career has revolved around investments in Russia and who has deep and continuing financial and employment ties to Gazprom. ...
More
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing
And...
Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross- section of a lot of our assets, Donald Trump Jr.
Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-russia-putin-dnc-hack-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-emails-483807
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,848 posts)... of Trump's ties to Russia.
Panich52
(5,829 posts)Heard one say he needed to see the proof; didn't matter, it he seemed to just ignore, that releasing it might hamper further security efforts.
Tom Rivers
(459 posts)he is an ignorant puppet easily played by putin, and his supporters should be terrified of this but they're so conned by trump and the right wing spin that they don't care.
UCmeNdc
(9,589 posts)Hoping Trump wins and puts these people in high places within the US government.
BainsBane
(53,003 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,679 posts)He's going to refuse to recognize the election results and declare himself
the winner and head to the courts.
Prepare. Think ahead.
anamandujano
(7,004 posts)Imagine a president dismissing the intel in a briefing. It's a recipe for disaster.
bucolic_frolic
(42,679 posts)but he doesn't believe our side
Should tell you something about his allies
arthritisR_US
(7,269 posts)brings this up.
BSdetect
(8,989 posts)His stupidity is dangerous.
keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)They don't take kindly to non-payment.
They'll demand other 'considerations' if not cash.
I'm really thinking he paid those hackers in Russia and he cannot get tied to it in any way. So of course, his usual thing is to deny, deny, deny.....
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Republicans have gone off the frikking sanity track and into a PSYCHIC TORTURE DUNGEON.
Cha
(295,929 posts)by the *****? He'd rather look stupid than buck putin.
"It defies logic.." It's trump.. of course it does.
Thank you, BB