Tag: 2016 election

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Trump Tweets: Obama “Colluded Or Obstructed” In 2016 Campaign

Donald Trump

It wouldn’t be a Monday morning without President Trump taking to Twitter to assert some nutty theory.

Now that he’s heard the word “obstruction” so much in regard to himself being investigated by a Special Counsel, it seems like it’s his favorite word.

This morning, Trump accused former President Obama of colluding or obstructing during the last months of the 2016 presidential election in regards to interference with Russia.

“The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win…and did not want to “rock the boat.” He didn’t “choke,” he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good. The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia…under a magnifying glass, they have zero “tapes” of T people colluding. There is no collusion & no obstruction. I should be given apology!”

Of course, it’s complete nonsense that the Obama administration did “nothing.” Obama expelled Russian diplomats, seized their compounds, and set sanctions in place for Trump to trigger.

Former spokesman for Obama’s National Security Council, Ned Price, pushed back saying Trump’s latest tweets were “nonsensical” blame-shifting.

“He’s attempting to pin on the Obama administration the very serious charges—namely collusion and obstruction—that federal investigators are examining in the context of his behavior and that of his associates,” Price said.

He added, “This ‘I’m-not-you-are’ strategy tends to be a hallmark of elementary school, not presidential strategy.”

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Former Homeland Security Secretary: A “Plain And Simple Fact” That Putin Ordered Cyber Attack On 2016 Election

Speaking before Congress today, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson left no doubts regarding Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and interference that was meant to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

“The Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyber attacks on our nation for the purpose of influence our election,” he said. “That is a fact, plain and simple.”

From Raw Story:

President Donald Trump has regularly hedged in public when asked if he believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday claimed that he had not spoke with the president about his views on Russia’s role in disrupting the election, and would not confirm if Trump actually believed Russia was behind the hacks of the DNC and former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

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NSA Document Indicates Russia May Have Attempted To Hack 2016 Voting Systems

The Intercept is reporting that a top-secret National Security Agency document indicates Russian government hackers may have attempted to hack more than 100 local election systems before Election Day 2016.

Russian military intelligence executed a cyber attack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document.

According to Huffington Post, the leaker of the document has been arrested.

A government contractor in Georgia was arrested this weekend after a classified National Security Agency report was leaked on an alleged cyberattack attempt by Russian military intelligence officers on a voting software company and local election officials.

Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old federal contractor for Pluribus International Corp. who had a top secret security clearance and was working at a government agency, was arrested by FBI agents Saturday at her home in Augusta, Georgia, according to the Justice Department.

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Trump Still Erroneously Maintains Millions Voted Illegally In Presidential Election

Last night, President Trump spent several minutes telling congressional leaders from both parties that he still believes he truly won the popular vote in the presidential election because 3-5 million votes were cast illegally.

The issue remained in the spotlight today as reporters asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the issue:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday confirmed that President Donald Trump believes millions of people voted illegally in November’s election, despite a total absence of evidence to support this view.

“The president does believe that. He has stated that before. I think he’s stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him,” Spicer told reporters at the daily press briefing.

Pressed for evidence to support the claim, Spicer said only, “I think the president has believed that for a while, based on studies and information he has.” He did not say what those studies or information were.

During the course of the press conference, Spicer grew visibly frustrated at the repeated questions about Trump’s false claim. “He believes what he believes based on the information he was provided,” Spicer told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny. Asked what Trump’s belief means for American democracy, Spicer snapped, “It means I have answered your question.”

Numerous studies have shown that there’s no way such massive voter fraud took place.

What neither Spicer nor Trump have explained to date is, if Trump truly believes there was such astronomical voter fraud, why hasn’t the president called for a massive investigation?

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Obama Announces Tough Sanctions Against Russia For Elections Interference

President Obama issued a statement today announcing several actions to be taken against the Russian government for cyber-activity intended to interfere in the recent U.S. elections.

From his statement:

Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election. These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.

All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions. In October, my Administration publicized our assessment that Russia took actions intended to interfere with the U.S. election process. These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government. Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences. Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response.

The list of actions include (via NBC News):

• Shutting down two compounds, one in in Maryland and one in New York, “used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes.”

• Sanctions against the Russian intelligence services GRU and FSB, and four high-ranking officers of the GRU. The sanctions are also aimed at two suspected hackers, including one wanted by the FBI in two other cases, and three companies that allegedly provided support to the GRU’s cyber operations.

• Releasing technical information about Russian cyber activity, “to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia’s global campaign of malicious cyber activities.”

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a declassified report offering some specifics regarding the Russian involvement in what those agencies now call “malicious cyber activity.”

President Obama also indicated that there may be more covert actions taken. “These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia’s aggressive activities,” Obama said. “We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized.”

Several members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for strenuous investigations into Russia’s involvement including Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

On the other end of the spectrum, President-elect Donald Trump says we shouldn’t bother looking into Russia’s interference in U.S. elections.

Speaking to reporters at his Florida home yesterday if the United States should sanction Russia, Trump had this to say: “I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on.”

The sanctions put into place today could be reversed by Trump once he takes office, but to do so would put him in a position of defending Russia and possibly signal that he doesn’t have confidence in the U.S.’s 17 intelligence agencies who all agree that Russia was involved.

Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the cyber-hacking activities.

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FBI Director Now Supports CIA Position That Russia Interfered In US Election To Help Trump

FBI Director James Comey

The FBI now supports the findings by the CIA that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. presidential election to throw the win to Donald Trump.

From The Washington Post:

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. have backed a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the presidency, according to U.S. officials.

Comey’s support for the CIA’s conclusion suggests that the leaders of the three agencies are in agreement on Russian intentions, contrary to suggestions by some lawmakers that the FBI disagreed with the CIA.

“Earlier this week, I met separately with (Director) FBI James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election,” CIA Director John Brennan said in a message to the agency’s workforce, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

“The three of us also agree that our organizations, along with others, need to focus on completing the thorough review of this issue that has been directed by President Obama and which is being led by the DNI,” Brennan’s message read.

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Obama On Hillary: “I Don’t Think She Was Treated Fairly During The Election”

At his final White House press conference for 2016, President Obama told reporters:

“I couldn’t be prouder of Secretary Clinton, her outstanding service; I think she’s worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people. And I don’t think she was treated fairly during the election.”

And he’s right.

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Hillary Clinton: Putin Targeted My Presidential Run Because “He Has A Personal Beef With Me”

Speaking to a group of donors in New York City yesterday, Hillary Clinton acknowledged the effect Russian cyber-hacking had on her campaign saying Russian President Putin targeted her “because he has a personal beef against me.”

Via the New York Times:

“Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Mrs. Clinton said.

It is the first time Mrs. Clinton has publicly addressed the impact of the hacks since the intelligence community concluded that they were specifically aimed at harming her campaign.

“Make no mistake, as the press is finally catching up to the facts, which we desperately tried to present to them during the last months of the campaign,” Mrs. Clinton told the group, which collectively poured roughly $1 billion into her effort. “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”

In her remarks, she endorsed the proposal of a bipartisan group of senators to investigate the hacking and said the inquiry should be modeled on the commission set up after the Sept. 11 attacks. “The public deserves to know exactly what happened, and why, in order for us to prevent future attacks on our systems, including our electoral system,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton said the hacking was one of two “unprecedented” events that led to her defeat. The other was the release of a letter by James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, shortly before the election disclosing new questions about emails handled by her private server. The letter, she said, cost her close races in several battleground states.

“Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the F.B.I. letter from Director Comey,” she said.

I agree with Hillary 100% on the two “events.” While the trickle-out of the DNC email hacking had a slow burn effect, Comey’s letter at the end was like a surgical coup de grâce which sliced off just the right degree of swing voters at the end of the race.

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CNN’s Chris Cuomo Fact Checks Trump Spox About “Overwhelming” Win

Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee spokesman rumored to be on the short list for Trump’s White House Press Secretary, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that Team Trump has been “unbelievably transparent” about his business dealings and the roles of his children in his administration.

“The American people have understood exactly what they’re getting, and they voted overwhelmingly for him,” Spicer said on CNN’s New Day. “He has been very clear about what he owns, the role of his family and everything else since he announced that he was running for president — and they overwhelmingly elected him with all of that on the table.”

Cuomo stepped in with some facts (via Raw Story):

“We know that more people are concerned about his business dealing than who are not, we know that his approval rating is low compared to where other president-elects have been at this point — but let’s dismiss the polls,” Cuomo said. “You said they overwhelmingly voted for him. There is no definition of overwhelming that would meet this statistical criteria.”

“It’s one of the lowest electoral margins we’ve had — I think it’s 46th out of 50-something,” Cuomo continued. “It’s one of the lowest in the last few cycles we’ve had. He won, he’s the president-elect, he will be the next president of the United States, but I’m saying, if you want to be straight about it and transparent — it wasn’t overwhelming.”

Regarding his children, Trump said during a debate that he would put his assets into a blind trust, which he is not doing.

Plus, his sons, who are to run the Trump companies, are sitting in on presidential meetings Trump has with foreign leaders and corporate CEOs, all of which is a huge conflict of interest.

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Celebs Ask Electoral College Members To “Vote Their Conscience”

Celebrities unite for this message asking the members of the Electoral College to “vote their conscience” on December 19th, meaning any “qualified” candidate for president.

They make it clear they’re not advocating a vote for Clinton, just “any eligible person” they trust to be competent as president.

From Unite For America:

They’re not asking you to vote for Hillary. 37 Electors can be American heroes by voting their conscience for a real leader. Find information for vigils and local rallies here.

Thank you to Martin Sheen, Debra Messing, James Cromwell, BD Wong, Noah Wyle, Freda Payne, Bob Odenkirk, J. Smith Cameron, Michael Urie, Moby, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Richard Schiff, Christine Lahti, Steven Pasquale, Emily Tyra, Talia Balsam and so many more who lent their time and voice to create this message of unity.

The Electors Trust provides free and strictly confidential legal support to any Elector who wishes to vote their conscience. Visit http://www.electorstrust.org/.

To be clear, IF enough members of the Electoral College did shift their votes in such manner that Donald Trump did not have the requisite 270 votes, the decision would go to the Republican controlled House of Representatives.

Even if that were to happen, I don’t see the Republicans in the House not choosing Trump.