Trump Says Focus on Russian Hacking Is a 'Political Witch Hunt'

[BeyondGeography]

Source: New York Times

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 nations top intelligence and law enforcement officials about Russian hacking of American political institutions. In the conversation, he repeatedly criticized the intense focus on the alleged cyber intrusions by 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 hacks of the White House and Congress, suggesting that it was unfair because those attacks on American institutions have not received the attention that the Russian cyber-intrusions have. But none of the information from those intrusions was made public as it was in the case of the hack of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign chairman.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/donald-trump-wall-hack-russia.html?_r=0

[madaboutharry]

1. He is trying to hide something.

I am convinced that there is a dirty and deep connection he is trying to keep covered up.

[Blanks]

11. His campaign coordinated with the Russian government...

I'm going to keep saying that until it becomes fact (i.e. Trump is smart, Hillary is crooked).

When he finally admits that the Russians were involved, proof will emerge that his campaign coordinated with them. The proof may come from the Russians themselves.

If their goal is to disrupt our government as much as possible, that'd be the optimum way to do it. Look for it to come together on or around Inauguration Day.

It's one of the reasons I'm beginning to wonder if the Russians weren't doing something to assist Trump during the republican primaries. Any of the other candidates would have put America first by now.

[dgibby]

15. I am of the same opinion.

I would think by now that the Intel. community is aware of whatever connections may exist. Hopefully, that info will be part of his brief today. I'd love to be a fly on THAT wall! Talking heads on MSM think he'll agree that the intel is accurate, but I think he'll double down and keep digging.

[Wounded Bear]

26. Probably...and if he did, the Intel guys probably know about it...

Assuming they are patriots, they are also probably worried about what revealing all that would do to our country.

I fear some chaos coming. It won't be pretty

[wordpix]

51. keep dissing "intel" as Trump put it and maybe they'll find his tax returns & Apprentice outtakes

Hopefully the intel agencies will one up him.

Deplorable isn't the word for Don the Con

[Stellar]

76. I hope they can put their hands on the documents that tells..

of all the billions of dollars that Trump owes the Russians. And have media keep playing that one note as if they were looking for Trump's birth certificate.

[Docreed2003]

60. The primary point you made brings up an interesting CT...

Remember back when Trump implied Cruz's dad was buddies with Lee Harvey Oswald and referenced a grainy picture in the National Enquirer? We know that NE has had a cozy relationship with Trump, what if Trump provided them the picture and the picture was legitimate, only obtained from Russian archives???

Yeah, I know it's a stretch. But, regardless, I think your point is spot on. The Russians, we've been told through several sources, have been bending Trumps ear for years. The rest of the GOP was extremely anti-Putin/Russia. I have no doubts that they helped influence the primary as well as the general election.

[Blanks]

62. From the Russians point of view...

It's got to be amusing that an American candidate for president got points for referencing an Enquirer story.

They've got to be laughing their asses off.

[Sunlei]

69. Republican Parties campaign colluded with Russian hackers.knew 'in advance' wiki.had. new.dump.

[Sunlei]

71. remember manafort worked for FREE for that Republicans first 4 months of campaign.

No Republican peeped a word about just how or WHY? a billionaire Ukraine busting Lawyer "volunteered" no charge to work for trumps campaign.

[Blanks]

75. I didn't know that Manafort worked for free...

But he left (it seemed to me) unexpectedly.

It really looks like they're trying to put 'time distance' between Trump's closeness to a 'Russian political operative' in his campaign and an acknowledgement that the Russians were involved in the hacking.

He has eventually said that he believes that the Russians were involved in the hacking and he will point to yesterday as the day that he acknowledged it, because acknowledging it any earlier is acknowledging that he has been in communication with the hackers.

He isn't going to get away with pretending that he is ignorant of it for much longer.

[Sunlei]

78. He was called a 'volunteer'. he left after some people started asking ?s about his russia connection

I remember posting that ? in DU last year. just google search "volunteer Manafort" and you'll notice media picking up on that in beginning of last year.

Then this times story was published.

Paul Manafort has guided dictators and strongmen, but can he ...
Los Angeles Times-Aug 12, 2016
Political consultant Paul Manafort was so renowned in Ukraine for helping elect President Viktor ... His Trump work is volunteer, he has said.

And Manafort was gone by 8/15.

[wordpix]

50. he doth protest too much for sure

[uppityperson]

2. Don is a vain, narcissistic bullying fool

[Hortensis]

49. His last tweet 2 hours ago:

"I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it."

I was reading a psychologist who said it's normal for people like him to become more malignant when they acquire power. More paranoid already or just playing to his despicables?

[uppityperson]

66. Oh no! Someone told something to someone else before telling Don! The NERVE!!!!111

[Hortensis]

67. No doubt. But this aggressive move against NBC

is seen as a threatening one. Donald threatened to sue NBC over the Access Hollywood tapes, and NBC has hired Megyn Kelly, so he's probably developed one of his famous vengeful hates against them.

Besides signaling both his usual dysfunction and a scary willingness to abuse power, though, it's probably mostly an attempt to distract attention from the intelligence conclusions that Russia targeted Trump because his business interests "disposed" him "to deal with Russia."

Btw, Assange (and Russia?) is in on the diversion to NBC also.

WikiLeaks also chimed in Friday, posting that NBC was able to view the briefing because of "political reasons." On Twitter: "The Obama admin/CIA is illegally funneling TOP SECRET//COMINT information to NBC for political reasons before PEOTUS even gets to read it." It later called the sharing of intelligence with NBC a "#PseudoLeak."

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, questioned why Trump wanted to investigate the NBC report. "Of all issues implicated by Russian active measures, this is what you want to investigate?" he tweeted. "This is your top priority for intel committees?"

Divert, divert, divert. Donald does know how to do that.

[Sunlei]

70. republicans have been after NBC a longtime, their fox-lies propaganda TV, hates NBC & CBS & PBS

NBC must be the lower bar to ruin first. (plenty of Ds seem to not 'like' NBC TV, mostly pay-tv NBC.)

[Hortensis]

72. Hmm. A president ruining a network would further Putin's goal

Last edited Sat Jan 7, 2017, 07:43 AM - Edit history (1)

of bringing down the U.S. for sure. Let's hope to hell this just keeps NBC's attorneys busy. (Btw, just saw Michael Moore point out 2 more reasons for a Trump vendetta: NBC fired him from The Apprentice two days after he announced for president. The inevitable headline in media everywhere was "NBC to Trump: You're Fired!" And--of course!--Saturday Night Live.)

It's not too much to wonder if a disordered person like Trump might try to go much farther if he's thwarted by our justice system. "By the way, I hate some of these people, but I'd never kill them. I would never do that... Ah, let's see...aaah.... No, I wouldn't." Trump speaking and joking at a rally about the press. The thought is in his head.

We know his admiration of Putin and defense of Putin's murder of journalists. Also his own 25-year eagerness to, in effect, murder the "Central Park Five," as they themselves see it. He not only campaigned for the deaths of innocent men then but calls for them to this day. If Trump starts free-associating about poisons, anyone who's ever spoken out against him had better watch out.

[Sunlei]

73. never forget russia russia just changed to 100% government controlled media & destabilized sever

destabilized several countries.

They're behind the current destabilizing of Turkey, the first big terrorist attack on their largest airport in the world were by men with Russian passports.

IMO, Even the "coup" was arranged by Russia. Here's when Turkeys TV station was taken over, this media has some videos look how coordinated and fast public media can be changed.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dramatic-moment-cnn-turk-taken-8432900


The USA needs to go after Americans who went along, knew or were the third parties with the political destabilizing efforts or countries like Russia will ramp up the attempts to attack global democracies. USA will have more attacks, much worse if USA doesn't fight the threat right now.

[Hortensis]

74. Yes. Erdogan amazes me. Sure, he and Russia worked

together against Syria, but he's partnering with a monster that's always craved turkey. Whatever they include, Putin's absolutely had a number of victories involving Turkey. Their invasion of Syria also guarantees a ramping up of destabilizing terrorist attacks against Turkey, while Russia has obvious geographic, as well as other structural, advantages.

As for our press, the president can order nationwide censorship at any moment, of course, and has. The last time I became aware was back in...2009? when it became obvious by disappearance that the government feared a major flu pandemic might be occurring. Our press aren't centralized, in spite of concentration of some in NY, but with the enormous dependence on electronics from the largest to the very smallest does that matter?

[denbot]

3. Methinks thou doth protest too much.

He is beginning to sound worried.

[nini]

9. That's what I think

The 'outrage' is beyond his normal craziness.

[PatSeg]

43. Yes, much too much

for a "winner".

[wordpix]

52. I hypothesize he was working directly through the Russians

Those pings from the Kremlin to Trump Tower are telling.

[yallerdawg]

4. Keep listening to your political hacks, jackass.

Not to mention the voices in your head.

We'll be rid of you so much sooner!

[Cracklin Charlie]

5. Where is The Whirlpool?

He seems so all alone.

Is there no one around him that has one of those big giant hooks to drag him off the stage?

Ivanka, Don, Jr., Rudy, KellyAnne, Steve...For dog's sake! Do something!

Wait...scratch that last part.

[Blanks]

6. Trump is living proof...

That you don't have to smart, or talented or even sane to be (or appear to be) rich.

All it takes is a big head start.

[CentralMass]

16. And no moral compass

[Wounded Bear]

7. Feels a little different when you're the witch, eh Trump?

[2naSalit]

23. +1!

[nini]

8. He's afraid of something

There's gonna be some major throwing under the bus coming soon.

[Grey Lemercier]

10. hey

[HopeAgain]

12. 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 those main 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.

[BeyondGeography]

20. And if anyone gives you any guff, you can throw this at them

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-intercepts-capture-senior-russian-officials-celebrating-trump-win/2017/01/05/d7099406-d355-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?utm_term=.b621ff5d3fbb

[mac56]

31. Yes. And welcome.

[Botany]

13. Trump knows that Russia/Putin put him into power.

n/t

[2naSalit]

27. He sure does...

and his spoiled rotten childhood excuses aren't going to help him squirm out of this... we're not his fucked up parents, this is the big time and he has no clue how to handle it. This child was never properly socialized. Anyone who helps him cover this mountain of poo is obviously a traitor.

[Botany]

33. He tells everybody that he knew of the Russian hacking last summer

And in 2013 he called for the hacking of President Obama.

ObamaCare is a disaster and Snowden is a spy who should be executed-but if it and he could reveal
Obama's records,I might become a major fan

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/816687418636206080

[2naSalit]

34. Thanks for posting that...

I hope it gets a lot of play every day until we get our country back.

[Botany]

35. How did Trump know that Russia hacked the DNC last summer?

He is a traitor and it was a coup.

[2naSalit]

37. It's pretty obvious to most of us...

there isn't enough lipstick in the universe for this pig to look good.

The unthinkable has happened, we need to stop being shocked so we can take decisive action NOW.

[wordpix]

53. How did once gleeful Ghouliani know something big was coming up right before Comey's

11-day-before-the-election announcement about GD emails?

[underpants]

44. Sanctions. They can say it was Putins hate for Hillary but it's about the $

Last edited Fri Jan 6, 2017, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)

His economy is crippled. Tillerson's Exxon has lost a billion $ due to the sanctions.

[wordpix]

55. did not know that, thanks---this explains Putin's motives

Guess the sanctions are working so there's the motivation for Putin to cozy up to the repug, whoever might win the nomination. And maybe the Russians helped Don get there since he's such a narcissist and easy to involve as an unwitting agent.

Pres O said Russia was a little country that fails to innovate. Ouch.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Since when is Russia a part of our political system?

[leftyladyfrommo]

17. Putin owns him.

The election was rigged only it was rigged for him to win. And who knows how much money he owes the Russians.

His objections are getting just plain weird. It is getting painfully obvious to just about everyone that something is seriously wrong here and the Repubs are not going to be able to control the fall out.

[2naSalit]

28. International news outlets are all over it

and they are shaking their heads in bewilderment.

[herding cats]

18. Russia successfully influenced our presidential elections. That's a fact, not a witch hunt.

Pretending it didn't happen didn't make it go away.

Denying it happened didn't make it not true.

Calling it a political witch hunt before the report is released to the public isn't going to matter either. Especially since the loudest voices on this are two Republicans! (Hint: that's your own party.)

Trump's actions are reminiscent of how a child with a face covered in chocolate would react when asked if they got into the candy without permission. Which begs the question, has the US elected a Russian mole as president?

[Cha]

46. 'Fraid so.. the Siberian Candidate

[wordpix]

56. but, but, they didn't hack directly into voting machines - this the repuke comeback (puke)

[vkkv]

19. This TRUMP LOSER is a sore winner of the electoral college only- not of the majority.. nt

[Blue Idaho]

21. Keep talking Donald...

Every interview, every photo op, every tweet exposes Trump for the self centered egomaniac he really is. His inability to see past himself here and his recent twitter storm with Arnold over his TV ratings drags his approval lower and lower. It's becoming painfully clear to even the lowest of low information voters that their problems are not his problems.

[Achilleaze]

22. Actually, it's a hunt for TRAITORS against America

So call it what it is.

[Snellius]

58. No problem! He'll sue. He'll just take the country to court.

He'll sue us. And since it will be the Supreme Court and he'll name who's on it, he'll win. If he loses, he'll sue the U.S. Supreme Court in the Supreme Court in Moscow. Because he's a winner not a loser. I love America now that it's great again.

[inwiththenew]

24. I wonder how much of this is pure vanity and him not being able to admit he's not as great as he say

We saw this with the Atlantic City deal. He went on and on about how other have done poorly there and how Atlantic City is bad for business.

He did it again with the large tax write off. He said, incorrectly, that Buffet and lots of other business people do it.

With the Chinese steel he questioned why he was allowed to do it.

With his products being made overseas it was because of regulations and Chinese cheating.

With Trump University he claims he only settled to be done with it and would have won while claiming that he did nothing wrong and almost everyone was happy with his program.

He seems to be completely unable to admit that he is not as great as he says he is. It seems like if he admits Russia influenced the election in one way or the other he would have to admit that he wasn't propelled to victory solely by his own greatness.

[bucolic_frolic]

25. Facts will be pesky things to delusions like those

You help me get elected, I'll owe you the country

Quid. Pro. Quo.

[2naSalit]

29. And he thinks this is going to help him when the spooks meet

with him later today? That's how screwed up this psychopath is.

[tclambert]

30. He wants to avoid a witch hunt and yet . . .

he claims to have some sort of crystal ball that gives him better information than our intelligence agencies. and he wants to build a magic wall that Mexicans can't climb over, and he wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better that will magically appear at the last second since Republicans haven't been able to come up with idea one in six years.

Donald, if you don't want to be mistaken for a witch, don't wear pointy hats. (What? That's not a hat? Are you sure?)

[genxlib]

32. This one is different

All those other hacking episodes were not the same.

The information gathered in this one was weaponized against the US.

That is why this one warrants the reviews that you are so desperately trying to undermine.

[SHRED]

36. And tRump is the witch

[ailsagirl]

38. So if he brushes it off, it will be disregarded??

[sellitman]

39. Benghazi was a political witch hunt

This is a fact based espionage round up in which Trump was involved in with the Commies.

He is a traitor.

[Javaman]

40. methinks he doth protest too much nt

[ProfessorGAC]

41. Really Dumb

All he has to say is "Well, i don't know all the facts, but if a foreign country did interfere in our elections, that's bad." No admission, no concession, no implication of foreknowledge, and it's what a president, or president to be, should say.

Seems easier to this than set one's self up for complete rebuttal.

[Snellius]

61. It's so stupid. It's like he's setting himself up to be impeached.

He's doesn't want to be President. He just wanted to win the Presidency. But the Presidency is actually work, where the big kids play. He's a great liar. But not a great bullshitter like Bush. You pretend the truth to cover the lie.

[ProfessorGAC]

64. Spot On, Snellius!

It was the contest, not the gig, that he pursued. He's just so not up to this job.

[Snellius]

65. What's weird is that he's owning the Russia scandal. Owning a losing side.

It's like he's falling right into a trap he's set for himself. What he should be doing is being outraged, just OUTRAGED, that a foreign government would cyber invade our great-again America. Meanwhile giving Puti and wink-wink friendly call and cashing in his investments with Russian oligarchs. That's how the game is played. But he does know how to play with the big boys. He thinks he's so smart only because he thinks so small.

[world wide wally]

42. It's not that Trump is lying about this,

It's that we are going to have to deal with a habitual liar for four years and we know it before it even starts.
There is nothing that would hurt the GOP more than taking this prick down and having the American people stuck with this ruthless GOP congress fucking with their lives and NOT having their glorious leader in control.

[wordpix]

59. he'll get impeached soon after he's tied directly to Pooty

but then we'll have Dull as a Pencel

[Cha]

45. Wah@WAHWAH!

[6000eliot]

47. Who is the witch?

Is this a confession?

[SHRED]

48. Like his birther BS?

[Eugene]

54. Trump talks in near-100% projection.

If he's complaining about a witch hunt, count on him to wage one if not many.

[wordpix]

57. he spoke to his most-hated "lying" NYT for 3 hr? LOL, can't wait to know more

I'll bet there's a trove of info he spilled inadvertently while repeating over and over, "How do 16 intel agencies KNOW it was Russian hacking? Julian Assange is a genius, our intel agencies are disasters...""

[oasis]

63. Benedict Donald doth protest too much.

[Sunlei]

68. Republicans used stolen files in our election. Files they knew! were stolen.

[Stellar]

77. Political witch hunt like Benghazi...30K missing emails...

OK,. I'll buy that. Let's keep that witch hunt going until RepublicOns are f#cking fed up with that story.

[treestar]

79. whining as usual

poor Donny the victim of that mean media.