While I tend to agree with you, i think this debacle shows signs of forcing more republicans to act. Like Grassley for instance:
Grassley was in on the briefings a few days ago where they were given classified details from Comey.
I have made the case before that I think Trump is all-but-incapable of admitting he is wrong. His refusal to back away from the wiretap story, particularly the GHCQ part of it, which is now known to have originated on RT, is doing major damage,
It’s fucking embarrassing. You’re right that Trump is incapable of admitting wrong, but that is exactly what needs to be done. The endless deflecting of blame is making this situation so much worse than it needs to be.
You get that garbage out of here! :P
Apologies for total shite video quality.
No, I think in this case, making it worse is the only way for things to get better.
Look at it this way: Comey confirmed that the President is included in an ongoing counterintelligence investigation. He also, by saying there was no evidence for the wiretap claim, as much as said that Trump was either a crackpot or a liar (take your pick). With that as the status quo, it becomes more and more difficult for republicans to defend Trump. The more Trump denies he was wrong, the more he attacks the IC and the judiciary, etc. the more republicans will start to turn against him. If he backed off, even a little, I think they’d be much more likely to rationalize it all away and not to jump ship.
rowe33
1658
How does this even remotely make sense??
The FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and about the people we are investigating.
Am I the only one who finds this just a bit rich coming from Comey?
Won’t happen. First of all Trump will continue to double down, it’s what he does. Second of all, while it’s Kos, read this:
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have asked zero—ZERO!—questions about that investigation. Instead, they’ve focused on leaks, whether journalists publishing leaks have committed a crime … and if the FBI would investigate the Clinton campaign for ties to Russia. What a coincidence.
Quite clearly, Republicans on this committee are not interested in investigating anything, they’re simply providing cover for Donald Trump. We need a special prosecutor now.
Yeah, I mean, the need for a special prosecutor has been obvious for at least a month.
I’m not holding my breath. Qui custodiet ipsos custodes, indeed.
The lawfare liveblog appears to completely back this story from Kos, FWIW.
“He’s still funny, but not ha-ha funny…”
ShivaX
1664
It should have happened the second we suspected anything was going on, but that would have violated the rules that Comey later violated. At the very least it should have happened before Trump even took office, but we’re talking about the GOP having to do something that puts the nation over the party, so it wont happen until 2018 or if things get scary enough at the state and local level that they can’t keep pretending it isn’t real.
I haven’t gotten through the thread yet but this is laughable given that the questions coming from the Republicans during the hearing seemed to be entirely dictated by Trump’s early morning, pre-hearing Tweets:
For them, this hearing was all for show. It allows them to pretend they are doing their jobs and investigating while attempting to steer the investigations away from Trump.
Senate Republicans are still figuring out this whole “show hearings” thing. You can’t expect them to do it up like they’ve had years of practice. Unlike, you, know, House Republicans.
None
1667
On Monday, the intrigue took another turn, when a member of Parliament in Ukraine released documents that he said showed that Mr. Manafort took steps to hide the payments, which were tied to Mr. Manafort’s work for former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. The documents included an invoice that appeared to show $750,000 funneled through an offshore account and disguised as payment for computers.
Mr. Manafort, who denied the latest allegations, has asserted that the ledger is a forgery and that the member of Parliament, Serhiy A. Leshchenko, was involved in a scheme to blackmail him. Mr. Leshchenko insists that a letter appearing to show him threatening Mr. Manafort with the release of damaging information was itself a fake, and he denies any involvement in blackmail.
Oh dear. Everything’s fake.
ShivaX
1668
Oops.
But seriously, fuck Napolitano.
