The Trump Effect

Yes.
No.
McCain (AR-D) handing it over to the FBI is a far cry from being included in the POTUS / PEOTUS intelligence briefing.

 

Whomever Trump nominates for SCOTUS will be confirmed & seated.

The rest is semantical silliness.

 

No, it's a circular ideology. Trump can't nominate someone not qualified, or someone that would violate the law, or someone that doesn't want the job.

Thus Trump wouldn't "want" someone like that, thus whomever "he does want" will be nominated and will be confirmed.

You are puffing your chest out and blowing hard that he can get whomever. And that's completely false.

What is true is that the person he nominates will be confirmed. That's true, and zero argument. But that isn't the same as saying he can nominate whomever he wants. Because that is demonstratedly false.

 

I've already wasted too much time with this line of discussion.

I am comfortable with what I've said, and that most easily understood it.

 

Of course you are comfortable with it, you have an infallible system going.

I'm just glad you finally worked it into a statement of fact, for fallible folk like myself.

 

Can I get a link to CNN reporting that the salacious and unverified document was presented to trump?

 

I'll have to see if I can find a link - but my understanding is that CNN and others did report that the intelligence briefer did discuss the existence of the dossier and its contents with Trump to make sure he was aware it was out there. But they did not present thie contents as part of their intelligence briefing.

 

I also thought I saw he was briefed on it. Thought it was told he was out there but they had no verification.

 

This is going to be a very long 4/8 years if he and the media and intel community and foreign powers and Santa Claus keep at this pace.

 

Nah, more likely we'll just become tone deaf to it, which is more scary.

I'd rather have the gnashing and wringing than indifference.

 

(CNN)Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative,...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/

 

Apparently Biden has confirmed the unverified documents were included in the intelligence briefing. Not that CNN was in the wrong, but it appears they may have a level of vindication.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump-intelligence-report/index.html?adkey=bn

 

Obama just lifted "Wet foot, dry foot." Should be fun around here.

 

A brief of it was.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

 

And this statement:

So it wasn't reported that it was discussed with Trump? That's how I am reading this.

 

Here's the crux of the matter:

CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs.

 

I think that's right.

Was presented to him in the brief packet, not necessarily discussed.

 

I remember reading that was what an intel person said as well: prepared, but only as an example of "disinformation" because it was considered very unreliable.

 

I think the last bit isn't consistent with what I've read elsewhere. Included to make him aware that the dossier was out there. Obama and Biden were briefed on it as well. I don't think it was meant to serve as an example of disinformation.

CNN has a piece up tonight from a former intelligence guy whose optinion is that the dossier could be false but only because intelligence is a tricky business. He says Steele, who he has known for 20 years, is very well respected and has a lot of intelligence contacts in Russia.

 

I thought this had been settled. CIA included is as an example of unvetted disinformation as a way of contrasting with real intelligence on election hacking. The whole pint was to show Trump an example of "intelligence" that they would never run with unlike the stuff that was verifiable.