How Republicans Are Jumping on New Steele Scoop to Distract From Trump-Russia Scandal - David Corn

[Tactical Peek]

How Republicans Are Jumping on the New Steele Scoop to Distract From the Trump-Russia Scandal

Meanwhile, they are promoting a counter-controversy of dubious origins.

David Corn
Oct. 25, 2017 2:47 PM


The cognitive dissonance of the Republicans is pegging the needle this week. The news that a law firm working for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee bankrolled the Trump opposition research project that produced the infamous Trump-Russia memos has touched off much howling in GOP and conservative quarters. The revelation that these Democratic outfits financed the digging of Christopher David Steele, the veteran British counterintelligence officer, was a scoop—but it does not fundamentally change the landscape.

When the existence of these memos was first reported (uh, by me, in October 2016), I noted that Steele’s investigation was underwritten by a Democratic source. Now the public knows which ones. But as Republicans seize on this development to try to discredit the Steele memos and the whole Trump-Russia scandal, they are also pushing for an investigation into what they claim is the real scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the sale of a uranium company with US operations to a Russian government agency. Fact-checkers have already declared this supposed scandal, which President Donald Trump has pushed, a phony. But here’s where the hypocrisy truly kicks in: the Clinton-uranium story originated with an anti-Clinton book called Clinton Cash, which was produced at a nonprofit supported by right-wing hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer and co-founded by conservative firebrand Stephen Bannon.

So you see what’s happening? Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer.

At the heart of all this is a simple and troubling fact: Most Republicans don’t seem to give a damn about the Russian assault on the 2016 election and the profound implications of that act of information warfare. Trump, of course, has refused to fully acknowledge Vladimir Putin’s attack on American democracy and has branded all reporting of interactions between him and his associates and Russia as “fake news.” (His denial of Russia’s actions was one form of collusion.) Most of his party has followed his lead. Though there are three congressional investigations underway related to the Trump-Russia scandal, several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, have been trying to change the subject by focusing on the Steele documents more than the extensive Russian covert plot—which included the hack-and-dump operations and, as we know realize, clandestine social-media campaigns. These Republicans also have been attempting to develop competing scandals, such as the Clinton-uranium affair or the unmasking controversy. (For the latter pseudo-scandal—a Nunes favorite—Republicans have claimed former Obama administration officials who reviewed classified intelligence intercepts improperly asked for the names of Americans caught in US intelligence eavesdropping. Unmasking actually is a common action conducted by national security officials, and so far there has been no evidence anyone engaged in wrongful unmasking.)

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/how-republicans-are-jumping-on-the-new-steele-scoop-to-distract-from-the-trump-russia-scandal/

[Wwcd]

1. Thanking the Dem Attorney who continued the funding after the Republican began the search

Ha! Yup I bet the trumpers are pissed.
They could have had it all. A.L.L.!!

Let them talk, cry foul, threaten. Mueller & Schneiderman have more than the Dossier to convict Trump crime family. They have Intel from our foreign allies around the world.
Trump has been on the RICO watch list for 20+ years.
Trump reached out & pushed the handle down on the toaster all by himself.
Btw, Hillary had ZERO to do with the Steele Dossier.

Let them talk their bs talk.
They're not going to distract Mueller nor AG Schneiderman.

In the end they'll be the disjointed & limping Trump Party.
Keep cryin foul. Mueller & Schneiderman are about to give the trumpers something to really cry about.

Let me get this right. Seeking connections of someone working with a foreign adversary to overthrow the US govt is ..umm Wrong??

Who's the corrupt traitor to the USA, again?

[Vinca]

2. I doubt this is a distraction to Mueller. They can scream "Hillary did it" 24/7, but it's highly

unlikely indictments will fall on the Democratic side of the 2016 election.

[spanone]

3. and the Mueller investigation goes on and on......

[Thomas Hurt]

4. They are trying to say that Clinton paid Russia......somehow, for the dossier.

projection at its finest.

[Madam45for2923]

5. They only like oppo research that is against a DEM candidate, but not against GOP candidate! Good 1!

So you see what’s happening? Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer.

[Beartracks]

6. Even if Dems funded the oppo research... First of all, it's oppo research. Duh.

Campaigns do that.

But second: The Republican claim that Dem funding reduces the dossier to "fake news" is plain silly, as Dems wouldn't have needed the help of intelligence experts to do that; they would've gotten a fantasy novelist. And Dems didn't hire a fantasy novelist, because they wanted to uncover the truth of things. And that's what they did. And that's why Republicans want to discredit the dossier: precisely because it is NOT fake news.

=========

[Madam45for2923]

7. How Republicans Are Jumping on the New Steele Scoop to Distract From the Trump-Russia Scandal

How Republicans Are Jumping on the New Steele Scoop to Distract From the Trump-Russia Scandal

Meanwhile, they are promoting a counter-controversy of dubious origins.

David Corn
Oct. 25, 2017 2:47 PM


The cognitive dissonance of the Republicans is pegging the needle this week. The news that a law firm working for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee bankrolled the Trump opposition research project that produced the infamous Trump-Russia memos has touched off much howling in GOP and conservative quarters. The revelation that these Democratic outfits financed the digging of Christopher David Steele, the veteran British counterintelligence officer, was a scoop—but it does not fundamentally change the landscape.

When the existence of these memos was first reported (uh, by me, in October 2016), I noted that Steele’s investigation was underwritten by a Democratic source. Now the public knows which ones. But as Republicans seize on this development to try to discredit the Steele memos and the whole Trump-Russia scandal, they are also pushing for an investigation into what they claim is the real scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the sale of a uranium company with US operations to a Russian government agency. Fact-checkers have already declared this supposed scandal, which President Donald Trump has pushed, a phony. But here’s where the hypocrisy truly kicks in: the Clinton-uranium story originated with an anti-Clinton book called Clinton Cash, which was produced at a nonprofit supported by right-wing hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer and co-founded by conservative firebrand Stephen Bannon.

So you see what’s happening? Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer.

At the heart of all this is a simple and troubling fact: Most Republicans don’t seem to give a damn about the Russian assault on the 2016 election and the profound implications of that act of information warfare. Trump, of course, has refused to fully acknowledge Vladimir Putin’s attack on American democracy and has branded all reporting of interactions between him and his associates and Russia as “fake news.” (His denial of Russia’s actions was one form of collusion.) Most of his party has followed his lead. Though there are three congressional investigations underway related to the Trump-Russia scandal, several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, have been trying to change the subject by focusing on the Steele documents more than the extensive Russian covert plot—which included the hack-and-dump operations and, as we know realize, clandestine social-media campaigns. These Republicans also have been attempting to develop competing scandals, such as the Clinton-uranium affair or the unmasking controversy. (For the latter pseudo-scandal—a Nunes favorite—Republicans have claimed former Obama administration officials who reviewed classified intelligence intercepts improperly asked for the names of Americans caught in US intelligence eavesdropping. Unmasking actually is a common action conducted by national security officials, and so far there has been no evidence anyone engaged in wrongful unmasking.)

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/how-republicans-are-jumping-on-the-new-steele-scoop-to-distract-from-the-trump-russia-scandal/