President Trump Thread...

[Cotton]

I agree that most GOP voters don't want bigger government... at least from what I can tell. But there's a huge disconnect between the voters and the party, because the party as a whole hasn't been shrinking the government for years.

TrumpCare is the latest boondoggle. They're taking a failing health insurance scheme, making slight modifications to it, bailing out insurance companies, and putting their stamp on it. It's like they're trying to take credit for building the Titanic after it has hit the iceberg.

If you want real conservatism from GOP politicians, you have to depend on Rand Paul, Justin Amash, Thomas Massie, and the rest of the House Freedom Caucus. Sadly, they're hugely outnumbered.

I wish they would just repeal it.

 

[peplaw06]

Agreed. But they don't have the political balls to do it. Cuz ZOMG 22 million people will die!

 

[peplaw06]

 

[Cotton]

Agreed. But they don't have the political balls to do it. Cuz ZOMG 22 million people will die!

YOU MONSTER!

 

[Cotton]

So true.

 

[L.T. Fan]

I wish they would just repeal it.

So do I. Just get out of the insurance business.

 

[BipolarFuk]

An absolutely damning paragraph about Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting

An absolutely damning paragraph about Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting

This paragraph, from The New York Times' latest scoop on a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer, is completely and totally damning:

"Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father's candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email."

Remember that Don Jr. has changed his story since the Times reported a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on Saturday.

Version 1: The meeting was primarily about adoptions. Don Jr. didn't mention anything about the election to the Times.

Version 2: The impetus for the meeting was the promise of negative information about Hillary Clinton. But Don Jr. said in a statement he didn't know who it was he was meeting with.

CNN has not verified the Times report, and we'll see if a Version 3 emerges. But Version 2 is wholly undermined by the latest Times reporting.

The idea that Don Jr. didn't know the identity of the person he was meeting with preserved the possibility that he walked into the meeting totally blind. All he knew was that he was meeting with a friend of a friend -- the meeting had been brokered by someone Don Jr. met in Russia during a Miss Universe pageant -- who had information about Clinton.

But, according to the Times, Don Jr. received an email from the same person who set up the meeting making clear that the material was part of a Russian government effort to help his father's candidacy.

So, even if he didn't know the exact name or identity of the Russian lawyer he was to meet with, he knew -- if he read his email -- that whatever he was told in the meeting was part of a foreign government's efforts to help choose its preferred candidate in the 2016 election.

Sit with that for a minute: The eldest son of the de facto Republican presidential nominee reportedly met with someone he knew was peddling information as part of a Russian government effort to elect his dad.
That's stunning. There's just no other word for it.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., said in a statement following the story that it was "much ado about nothing."

And I'm sure there will be spin and explanations. The whole thing was a nothing-burger! Don Jr. quickly sniffed out the fact that the information Veselnitskaya was telling him was useless. So who cares?

That's not the point, of course. There's NO way Don Jr. would have known in advance that the information Veselnitskaya had was unhelpful. All he knew going into that meeting was that a Russian government effort to help his side win had produced information about Clinton that he wanted to see.

The intent and hope was that the information -- regardless of the source -- be good. That it turned out not to be, again, according to Don Jr., is beside the point.

Where does the story go from here? Who knows. This White House has repeatedly refused to answer questions that, frankly, need answers by screaming "fake news." They may do so again. But calling names won't solve this problem. Not even close.

 

[townsend]

Trump can pardon all the conspirators anyway, and 86% of Republicans would approve of it. But John McCain will say it's like troubling and stuff.

 

[Simpleton]

No matter how much information comes out the fan boys will continue to throw their hands up and ask for proof with the convenient excuse of "fake news" and "unreliable sources" just like their master wants them to. It's a real sad state of affairs when a large portion of the country foregoes rational, critical thought in favor of team politics.

 

[2233boys]

Agreed. But they don't have the political balls to do it. Cuz ZOMG 22 million people will die!

Not a big fan of the ACA but I would suspect for a lot different reasons than many of you. But if you are honest insurance coverage wasn't that great before the ACA, and it isn't that great with it.

If we lose preexisting conditions coverage, allow it up to the states or insurance companies to decide what those conditions they will cover, or allow insurance companies to just have one plan that covers preexisting conditions, people will die. Just as they did before the ACA took effect, the numbers and the effect may be dramatic, but I know my daughter won't be able to be insured or be able to afford insurance in many cases without that coverage. I am sure you all have family members that will be similarly affected.

Lay down your ideology and think about as a human being for a second. You all are good people, I haven't met one person on this board who I think is a bad person. I think we all (me included) get caught up in our ideology sometimes.

 

[2233boys]

The sad fact is that Republicans don't actually have a governing philosophy so all they have is shitting on the other team. The sadder fact is Democrats are starting to do the same thing. "Have you seen the other guy" is going to be the 2018 midterm slogan because politics has irreversibly gone the direction of catering to the least informed.

Essentially we're suffering through an ESPNization of political discourse.

IMO the democrats have no core beliefs they are all over the board. Right now it is run as an Anti Trump candidate. That is a crap strategy and they deserve to lose when they do it.

 

[townsend]

IMO the democrats have no core beliefs they are all over the board. Right now it is run as an Anti Trump candidate. That is a crap strategy and they deserve to lose when they do it.

I don't know if they'll lose "Fuck Bush" worked in 06. But just like the GOP they'll get in power with no plan and lose to the same strategy. We've created a government run by last year's peanut gallery.

 

[townsend]

But seriously, there's no way these emails aren't damning. Anyone who still thinks Russia is a non-story would still think so if Trump himself confessed to treason.

 

[L.T. Fan]

This paragraph, from The New York Times' latest scoop on a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer, is completely and totally damning:

"Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father's candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email."

Remember that Don Jr. has changed his story since the Times reported a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on Saturday.

Version 1: The meeting was primarily about adoptions. Don Jr. didn't mention anything about the election to the Times.

Version 2: The impetus for the meeting was the promise of negative information about Hillary Clinton. But Don Jr. said in a statement he didn't know who it was he was meeting with.

CNN has not verified the Times report, and we'll see if a Version 3 emerges. But Version 2 is wholly undermined by the latest Times reporting.

The idea that Don Jr. didn't know the identity of the person he was meeting with preserved the possibility that he walked into the meeting totally blind. All he knew was that he was meeting with a friend of a friend -- the meeting had been brokered by someone Don Jr. met in Russia during a Miss Universe pageant -- who had information about Clinton.

But, according to the Times, Don Jr. received an email from the same person who set up the meeting making clear that the material was part of a Russian government effort to help his father's candidacy.

So, even if he didn't know the exact name or identity of the Russian lawyer he was to meet with, he knew -- if he read his email -- that whatever he was told in the meeting was part of a foreign government's efforts to help choose its preferred candidate in the 2016 election.

Sit with that for a minute: The eldest son of the de facto Republican presidential nominee reportedly met with someone he knew was peddling information as part of a Russian government effort to elect his dad.
That's stunning. There's just no other word for it.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., said in a statement following the story that it was "much ado about nothing."

And I'm sure there will be spin and explanations. The whole thing was a nothing-burger! Don Jr. quickly sniffed out the fact that the information Veselnitskaya was telling him was useless. So who cares?

That's not the point, of course. There's NO way Don Jr. would have known in advance that the information Veselnitskaya had was unhelpful. All he knew going into that meeting was that a Russian government effort to help his side win had produced information about Clinton that he wanted to see.

The intent and hope was that the information -- regardless of the source -- be good. That it turned out not to be, again, according to Don Jr., is beside the point.

Where does the story go from here? Who knows. This White House has repeatedly refused to answer questions that, frankly, need answers by screaming "fake news." They may do so again. But calling names won't solve this problem. Not even close.

Did you fail to bold type that CNN hasn't verified the Times story yet?

 

[townsend]

Did you fail to bold type that CNN hasn't verified the Times story yet?

Trump Jr. Tweeted out the emails, verifying all of it.

 

[townsend]

[MENTION=11]L.T. Fan[/MENTION] you got a hot take on confirmed campaign collusion or are you still waiting for Fox and Friends to tell you what to think?

 

[Simpleton]

[MENTION=11]L.T. Fan[/MENTION] you got a hot take on confirmed campaign collusion or are you still waiting for Fox and Friends to tell you what to think?

What was Trump Jr.'s official capacity within the campaign or the administration itself?

How do you know exactly what was discussed while Manafort and Kushner were in the room? (if they ever were, unconfirmed sources, obvious)

I'm going to need a full accounting of exactly what was discussed before being able to draw any conclusions, and anything to the contrary is completely speculative.

After all, it's much more important that my political party is able to save face and stay in power than the well-being of the country as a whole, even in light of potential collusion with one of our top geopolitical adversaries.

 

[L.T. Fan]

Trump Jr. Tweeted out the emails, verifying all of it.

When the official reports are issued then you can gloat if there is anything in them that reveals your hoped for outcome. In the meantime continue to wallow in media releases that have no substance or credibility. I don't accept that sensational garbage by sources that have already been proven false on several fronts.

You know no more than you knew a month ago because nothing has been officially confirmed. Enjoy your occasional dose of tabloid bunk though.

 

[townsend]

When the official reports are issued then you can gloat if there is anything in them that reveals your hoped for outcome. In the meantime continue to wallow in media releases that have no substance or credibility. I don't accept that sensational garbage by sources that have already been proven false on several fronts.

You know no more than you knew a month ago because nothing has been officialled confirmed. Enjoy your occasional dose of tabloid bunk though.

TRUMP JUNIOR RELEASED THE EMAILS!

 

[townsend]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/donald-trumps-jrs-email-exchange/533244/?utm_source=atlfb

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