
People who lost money when the Stock Market went down 350 points based on the False and Dishonest reporting of Brian Ross of @ABC News (he has been suspended), should consider hiring a lawyer and suing ABC for the damages this bad reporting has caused – many millions of dollars! – President Donald J. Trump via Twitter, 12/3/2017
Reuters.com reports that
A series of tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump about the investigation into contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia prompted concerns on Sunday among both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham saying Trump could be wading into “peril” by commenting on the probe.
“I would just say this with the president: There’s an ongoing criminal investigation,” Graham said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
“You tweet and comment regarding ongoing criminal investigations at your own peril,” he added.
On Sunday morning, Trump wrote on Twitter that he never asked former FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser – a statement at odds with an account Comey himself has given.
That tweet followed one on Saturday in which Trump said: “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President (Mike Pence) and the FBI.”
Legal experts and some Democratic lawmakers said if Trump knew Flynn lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then pressured Comey not to investigate him, that could bolster a charge of obstruction of justice.
Trump’s attorney, John Dowd, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that he had drafted the Saturday tweet and made “a mistake” when he composed it.
“The mistake was I should have put the lying to the FBI in a separate line referencing his plea,” Dowd said. “Instead, I put it together and it made all you guys go crazy. A tweet is a shorthand.”
Dowd said the first time the president knew for a fact that Flynn lied to the FBI was when he was charged.
Dowd also clouded the issue by saying that then-Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates informed White House counsel Don McGahn in January that Flynn told FBI agents the same thing he told Pence, and that McGahn reported his conversation with Yates to Trump. He said Yates did not characterize Flynn’s conduct as a legal violation.
Dowd said it was the first and last time he would craft a tweet for the president.
”I’ll take responsibility,” he said. “I’m sorry I misled people.”
Yates did not respond to an email seeking comment, and a lawyer for McGahn did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘CONTINUAL TWEETS’
The series of tweets came after a dramatic turn of events on Friday in which Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations last December with Russia’s then-ambassador in Washington, Sergei Kislyak, just weeks before Trump entered the White House.
Flynn also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors delving into contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russia before the president took office.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she believed the indictments in the investigation so far and Trump’s “continual tweets” pointed toward an obstruction of justice case.
“I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director Comey. And it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“The president knew he (Flynn) had lied to the FBI, which means that when he talked to the FBI director and asked him to effectively drop this case, he knew that Flynn had committed a federal crime,” Adam Schiff, senior Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the ABC program “This Week.”
The Russia matter has dogged Trump’s first year in office, and this weekend overshadowed his first big legislative win when the Senate approved a tax bill.
Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election and potential collusion by Trump aides.
Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion.
Comey, who had been investigating the Russia allegations, was fired by Trump in May. He told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in June he believed his dismissal was related to the Russia probe, and said Trump asked him to end the investigation of Flynn.
“I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!” Trump said on Twitter on Sunday.
On CBS, Graham criticized Comey, saying he believed the former FBI director made some “very, very wrong” decisions during his tenure. But Graham also said Trump should be careful about his tweets.
“I’d be careful if I were you, Mr. President. I’d watch this,” Graham said.
Boys and girls, a couple of obvious points:
- It has been revealed that Kushner asked Flynn to contact the Russians AFTER Trump was elected president. Preliminary contact with the Russians by the incoming president and his staff is standard operating procedure and has been done by presidents before Donald J. Trump. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it.
- Doesn’t Senator Graham understand that the President’s Chief of Staff would have advised him to stop tweeting about it if the president was in any danger of repercussions?
We live in a “brave new world”, of that there is no doubt.
The vast majority of Americans own cellphones…and are on Twitter.
Yes, the now-280 characters contained in a “Tweet” are definitely not the most eloquent way for a President to be communicating with the American Public, but they are clear, concise, and immediate.
There is no room for “weasel words” in a “Tweet”, unlike the addresses of the individual who occupied the Oval Office before President Trump.
Heck, Obama gave long speeches just so he could refer to himself ad infinitum in them.
According to the Media Research Center, 89 percent of broadcast networks’ coverage of President Donald J. Trump has been negative.
From January 20 to April 9, 1,501 on-air statements about Trump made by experts, carefully selected voters, and reporters were negative, compared to just 186 positive, the study found.
Unfortunately, President-elect Trump will never be able to please the Washington Establishment, like John McCain’s pet, Lindsey Graham, or the Propaganda Arm of the Democratic Party, the Main Stream Media.
Nor should he have to.
The Presidency of the United States of America is the most important leadership position on the Face of God’s Green Earth.
The Main Stream Media knows that.
The problem is, the Political Elite and the Main Stream Media are still having a conniption fit (Southern colloquialism for being upset over something to the point insanity) over the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President by us rubes here in Flyover Country.
In fact, they are so upset that they have retaliated by publishing fictional stories, such as the Trump-Russia Collusion Fairy Tale, attributed to “unnamed” sources.
That is why they continue to try to bring down Trump.
They are behaving like spoiled little brats who need a timeout.
And, judging from the TV Ratings of their newscasts and the rapidly dwindling readership of Liberal Newspapers and Magazines, Americans are giving them one.
Meanwhile, POTUS continues to turn up the heat on them via his prolific use of Twitter and blunt to-the-point evisceration of those who wish him to fail.
So, is this just “tacky teasing” or is it a “terrific tactic”?
Actually, I believe that it is a bit of both.
While President Trump is posting his never-ending tweets, he is simultaneously working hard to fulfill his campaign promises, as shown by the 32.2% increase in the Dow since the 2016 Presidential Election.
The Liberal reaction of both anger and false “concern” about the 45th President’s prolific use of Twitter reminds me of a strategy or “tactic” which can be seen in the 1982 movie, “Rocky III’, in a scene in which Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is fighting his heart out in the late stages of a “revenge” match against the animalistic Clubber Lang (Mr. T).
Beaten until he seemingly cannot stand anymore, Rocky starts teasing Clubber to hit him with his best shot. Clubber hits him time and again, while a seemingly unfazed Rocky taunts him, saying, “You ain’t so bad”.
Eventually Clubber wears himself out, giving Rocky the opportunity to beat the living daylights out of him, leaving Clubber lying in the middle of the ring.
By teasing his opponent into a blinding rage, Rocky was able to accomplish his goal of winning back the World Heavyweight Championship.
By teasing the Vichy Republicans, Democrat Party and their Propaganda Arm, the Main Stream Media, in a similar fashion, President Trump has made them vulnerable, just as Rocky made Clubber, as this past week has shown with the suspension of Brian Ross for posting that Fake News Story involving Kushner, Flynn, and the Russians that the Reuters article referred to.
Trump is not a professional politicians. He thinks like an average American, saying and tweeting what is on his mind.
Tacky teasing? Most definitely.
Terrific tactic? Most assuredly.
Isn’t Modern Technology wonderful?
Until He Comes,
KJ