******BREAKING*****Trump Says Focus on Russian Hacking Is a Political Witch Hunt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump said in an interview Friday morning that the storm surrounding Russian hacking during the presidential campaign is a political witch hunt being carried out by his adversaries, who he said were embarrassed by their loss to him in the election last year.

Mr. Trump spoke to The New York Times by telephone three hours before he was set to be briefed by the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials about the Russian hacking of American political institutions. In the conversation, he repeatedly criticized the intense focus on Russia.


“China, relatively recently, hacked 20 million government names,” he said, referring to the breach of computers at the Office of Personnel Management in late 2014 and early 2015. “How come nobody even talks about that? This is a political witch hunt.”

He noted that there have been prior successful hackings of the White House and Congress, suggesting it was unfair that those attacks on American institutions have not received the attention that the Russian cyberintrusions have. But none of the information from those intrusions was made public as it was in the case of the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/donald-trump-wall-hack-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[Cha]

1. Stop Blubbering drumpf.. you're a political monsterrorist

[BeeBee]

2. Let's ask Hillary what it's like to be the focus of a political witch hunt, shall we? n/t

[underpants]

22. Bam!!! Nailed it

[johnnypanic42]

37. i swear, all he does

is take what he's done to other people and then accuse everyone else of doing it to HIM. so manipulative...

[Grammy23]

44. But that is exactly what people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder do.

They always blame, point the finger at others and try to manipulate the situation to divert attention or blame away from themselves. Look up the disorder and find a picture of Donald J. Trump. We are in for a very rough ride and he hasn't even taken the oath yet.

[johnnypanic42]

46. not to split hairs

but i know some people with that disorder and they are in no way evil like Trump. I understand what you mean, though--he most definitely has some mental problems. I just hesitate to diagnose him with anything because people already think personality disorders are funny/creepy (which is why there's that James McAvoy movie coming out about a villain with multiple personalities, marketed as a ~HORROR STORY~).

ah, i don't mean to lecture though. i stand by what i've been telling my family, which is that in twenty years or so his family and friends are gonna write some books on what he's like behind closed doors and it will be JUICY.

[Eyeball_Kid]

48. Trumpy's personality disorder hasn't hit home yet.

Congress and the executive branch have yet to discover the full impact of Trumpy's "hell-on-wheels" presidency. When they do, they'll all want him gone. They'll all find out that Trumpy has no interest in governing the nation. He'll be full of petty vindictiveness and bragging, but just won't find time for doing actual work. What this means is that the federal government will constantly expect things from Trumpy that he won't deliver. Instead, Trumpy WILL deliver gossip, misinformation, bombast, and outrage. He'll be the poster boy for a remake of "Little Lord Fauntleroy", with the added garishness that the Little Lord is 70 years old.

[longship]

3. With Drumpf as the witch! nt

[mchill]

4. I was one of those 20 million whose personal info hack

Thus far it has not been weaponized like the Russian's hacking was.

Sounds like he is setting himself up for rejecting the importance of the Intel, if not the veracity.

[leftynyc]

49. I wish I could be in the room

while he has to tell 17 intelligence agencies they're liars to their faces.

[muntrv]

5. Like Benghazi?

[herding cats]

6. Putin's Puppet haz a sad?

Is poor little Donald being picked on by the mean old Republicans? After all, it is McCain and Graham who are making they most hay about this.

[Achilleaze]

7. Actually, it's a TRAITOR hunt

So call it what it is. Republican DoubleSpeak is poisonous.

This is not about witches. It's about Traitors (R) to America.

[blue cat]

10. +1000

[mopinko]

13. this right here. this wins the interwebs today

may the language gods make it so.
(hahaha. we all know who the language gods work for. )

[Plucketeer]

23. I remember

and the dolt that offered that invite is about to be sworn in to the Oval Office.

[chelsea0011]

8. So, when in doubt, deflect the issue. Personal accounts were hacked by people

traced to China. Everyone was included from Communists to KKK members to Republicans to Democrats. There was no intent as in the Russian/Trump cabal to influence an election. I saw some (R) from Hell on the panel trying to make the same point and why we didn't punish China the same way we did Russia. Well, as the Director pointed out China was reprimanded. And, to the disappointment of the (R) from Hell it was effective. But not enough to end the hacking. I mean, how can you.

[Ace Rothstein]

9. Birtherism wasn't a political witch hunt though.

This fucking guy.

[still_one]

11. Trump is not a sane person, with obvious traits of paranoia. Of course there very well

could be something he should be paranoid about

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Trump just started the Nixon Cohn Witch Hunts.

This is going to get messy real quick. 1953 all over again. Funny,today's Trump target is-----NBC,these are the same Guys who got him elected,forgot he retaliates against anyone who besmirches his thin skinned image. The Grabber Tapes and now the payback. Get the net!

[shraby]

14. I smell fear.

[putitinD]

15. Birthergate anyone?

[meow2u3]

19. More like Traitorgate

[barbtries]

16. but of course.

nothing that's not about him is real. there is nothing, not one thing, in the world, that happens that is not about him.

[C_U_L8R]

17. Go to your intelligence briefing Donnie

it's apparent that you need some.

[meow2u3]

18. K&R for exposure of a traitor

trying to cover up his treason by whining that it's a witch hunt.

If it's a witch hunt, then Uncle Scam is the witch!

[SHRED]

20. And he is the witch

[Drahthaardogs]

21. This is getting scary.

Come on honest journalist s. It's obvious this was a coup. Break the story guys!

[mcar]

24. Fricken idiot

[Ligyron]

25. What is he so worried about then?

No one in the Intel community has officially suggested Trump was invloved. Yet.

Perhaps today is the day - we will see.

[TheBlackAdder]

26. It's actually a game of WHACK-A-MOLE... A Russian Mole!

[Bucky]

27. It's terrible the way the people are oppressing the government like that

[Freethinker65]

28. Wait until the CIA and NSA provide what they know about Mr. Trump to PEOTUS Trump...

Trump could very well end up blackmailed by Russia AND forces inside the US government. Could get interesting.

[MineralMan]

29. And then he said, "I'm melting....melting!"

[Thinkingabout]

30. I suspect when there is a serious terrorists problem this will be the same stupid answer we will

get from Trump, he is coming up to being president and he gets further from presidential activity. For all those who thinks Trump was sent by God, PLEASE rethink you ideas, he was not. He is a terrible person, his tweets may influence his supporters but it does not influence me. Get the facts, release your tax return and we can see if Putin is blackmailing you.

[HopeAgain]

31. THIS is the hill we stand on

We need to take a page out of their playbook. They used just a few things over and over, focusing an ADD country on a few topics and working them up with repetition. Benghazi, Obamacare and the Birther crap... it was said so many times that many Americans, simply adopted their views as a reason to vote Republican, even if they didn't understand the underlying facts.

Of all the shit that comes from Trump, this has to be one of a few very intense focuses. He is on the defensive. Repeat it over and over -- "Trump, Putin's puppet," -- until we ourselves are sick of hearing about it.

Circumstances have chosen this as our mantra, so we need to run with it...for four years, if necessary.

[randr]

32. Telling display of his lack of love for his country

[OregonBlue]

33. Now I really suspect there is something bad that they are going to discover about him.

[Gothmog]

34. Trump used the material provided by Russia to win and owes his so-called victory to putin

[MadCrow]

35. Talking Points

We need to agree on certain names, terms, and phrases when addressing Trump and his policies and repeat them over and over again ala the Tea Party until they are imprinted on the American psyche. We however won't have to "make up stuff"; we only have to agree on a small number of catch phrases and repeat them ad nauseum. Any ideas?

[Coolest Ranger]

36. When a real

political witch hunt begins you'll know it

[UCmeNdc]

38. Why is Trump so worried about protecting Russian Spy assets?

Why does Trump push to protect Putin's agenda and activities?

[BainsBane]

39. He's involved in this

Gary Kasparov says Trump's tweets reflect the Russian propaganda press, that he will read something in Russian one day and see it in Trump's tweets the next. This is moving beyond ego and incompetence to probable complicity. Trump may be more than a parts for the Russians.

[bdamomma]

41. He is over his head and

GUILTY AS SIN. Ok let's see how fast Pootie will be in the US to see him.

can we taunt him on twitter they way he taunts us?

[spanone]

40. sore winner

[Runningdawg]

42. Ahhhh

Does the little snowflake need a safe space?? Get used to it prick, we are just warming up!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

43. "Leave my buddy Putin alone"

[Freelancer]

45. Russia was trying to hurt HC, not help DT -- terrible idea executed poorly.

Every nation in the world craves stability from the U.S. above all. Long standing strategies into which countries have poured their treasure depend upon the U.S. staying on whatever course this is and not being erratic. The idea that any country would want DT to be president makes zero sense for this very reason. Russia WANTED HC to be president and, like everyone else, I suspect that the Russians took HC being elected as a given -- so much so, that they thought they had the luxury of taking a warning shot in her direction without changing the outcome of the election. Annalists agree that the hacking was most likely in retaliation for what VP perceived as attacks from HC leading up to Russian elections seven years ago. It was a 'shot across the bow' in the future Democratic president's direction. Unfortunately, America lurched at that very moment, and took a hit.

Now, instead of having a president HC to deal with who's every move would be sensible and predictable, Russia (and the whole world) is stuck with wild card DT. At the same time, Russia's attempt to engage in cold war style tit-for-tat using cyber is being misconstrued as an act of war in some circles. This is an epic fail on Russia's part, all around.

[UCmeNdc]

47. No it is an Epic win for Russia, The Russians got a Russian sympathizer POTUS

They also have moles put in place high inside of the US government.

The CIA and the FBI have to turn the Trump organization upside down and find out what is really going on.

[Freelancer]

50. Can't really agree with that. Agencies should watch closely, though, as always.

The problem, IMO, is getting it through to the crew coming in that, once they stepped into the political field, they ceased being businessmen. Now they're dealing with a side of Russia that oil executives and hotel magnates have only known about peripherally -- a side of Russia that, on the other hand, has been studying them intently... for decades. The knowledge base differential is frightening.