The Washington Post tonight says that a junior member of the Trump campaign team, George Papadopoulos, was trying to set up a meeting with Russians back in Spring 2016, not always to the agreement of other team members. But he seems to have kept trying.
But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.
Who was Papadopoulos, and why was he so eager to set up a meeting with the Russians? What could they do for the campaign? Papadopoulos claimed to be an intermediary for the Russian government. If I were his boss in the campaign, I would have had some questions about that.
The Don Jr. – Kushner – Manafort meeting with the Russians was June 9, and there were other interactions between campaign personnel during the summer. There seems to be no connection between Papadopoulos and those meetings, but there’s not a lot of information here.
The leaks keep coming. This looks like a part of a Russian campaign to get into the Trump campaign. It would not be surprising if they were working on multiple levels.
Seems to me that we need to know who all these people are that walked into the Trump campaign off the street.
The Russian International Affairs Council is mentioned toward the end of the article as one more point of contact for Papadopoulos. I looked at their discussion board on LinkedIn for a while a couple of years back. It had one of the weirdest combinations of blind ideologues and just plain goofy people that I’ve seen, along with a moderator who kept appealing for reasonable discussion. I didn’t spend much time on it.
TenguPhule
Expected at this point.
TenguPhule
Not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole.
David Anderson
I think the most important part of this story, is that senior campaign officials quickly sent out the word that this was not right. These Warnings went to high and low officials in the campaign. And they occurred before the June meeting. They knew!
David Anderson
@TenguPhule: hey we don’t look for reasonable discussion here.
NotMax
It’s samovars all the way down.
Mike in DC
@TenguPhule:
That describes a supermajority of political discussion boards and comment threads.
Mike in DC
@David Anderson:
Just waiting for the right offer. #artofthedeal
TenguPhule
@David Anderson:
No Touch No Touch You’re the Touch!
NotMax
The Russian Tea Room: the place for go for sturgeon in season.
The Russian ‘T’ Room: the place to go for immersion in treason.
JPL
Trump is identifying the bad people
Felonius Monk
It’s “Fake News”, but then we have a Fake President.
JPL
@Felonius Monk: He does have a problem distinguishing between good and evil.
Adam L Silverman
@David Anderson: Penetration at all levels:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/14/obama-russia-election-interference-241547?lo=ap_f1
Fr33d0m
How many intermediaries for foreign governments (rivals or otherwise) existed in any campaign over history? I’m betting this is the only one
Roger Moore
@David Anderson:
My guess is that they were already either in touch with or trying to get in touch with Russia, but doing it as quietly as possible. The last thing they wanted was for some ham-handed underling making obvious what they wanted to keep quiet.
PST
It may have been pointed out on other threads already, but it is nice to see that in the Gallup tracking poll, Trump hit new highs of disapproval and lows of approval today, breaking 60 percent and 35 percent, respectively, for the first time. Since it’s a rolling three-day average, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new record tomorrow. I think this weekend’s events may have knocked some sense into a few supporters who don’t identify as white supremacists but have somehow remained in denial about the nature of Trumpism.
Cheryl Rofer
@Roger Moore: Entirely possible.
NotMax
@Fr33d0m
Does Haley Barbour count? (See also here.)
dmsilev
@JPL: He’s playing to his base (i.e. racists). “See, I’m really with you; I just tried to shovel some BS at those FakeNews guys to shut them up”.
Major Major Major Major
@David Anderson: your mom’s a reasonable discussion!
dmsilev
@PST: I saw someone make an interesting point about the Gallup number, specifically the disapproval (61%). Obama, Clinton, HW Bush, Reagan, and Carter never reached a disapproval that high. W Bush did, but it took him six or seven years, including Iraq and Katrina. Trump managed it in six or seven _months_.
NotMax
@dmsilev
Where is Joseph “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” Welch when we need him?
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: He died in 1960, so I doubt he is available.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Asked and answered. We all know Trump has no decency.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
This is my assumption, too. Manafort didn’t want some flunky to mess up the meeting he was being paid big bucks to arrange.
trollhattan
Well now, COINTELPRO?
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: @Mnemosyne: Multiple dangles and approaches.
chopper
i dunno, but my first reaction to this guy was to make Webster jokes.
chopper
like i wonder if his wife “Ma’am” was involved in all this. hmm….
MomSense
It’s a common name but I can’t help notice it’s the same name as the head of the military junta that ruled Greece from ’67 to ’74.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Spike Lee shares a last name with Robert E.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
True.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: You never see the two of them together. Coincidence? I think not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I really have no response for that.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: There really isn’t one. Except, perhaps, more people are hearing of them doing great things with Frederick Douglas, more and more.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Covfefe.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Gesundheit.
Princess
Seth Abramson has a great thread-connecting set of tweets on this article that begins here:
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/897229893339144193
Adam L Silverman
@Princess: One thing he doesn’t mention is that the Center for the National Interest is a long standing Russian foreign policy promotion front in DC.
Adam L Silverman
More Manafort:
sigaba
@chopper: Yeah sorry I can’t read this story without thinking of Alex Karras.