Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockinā€™ šŸŽµ

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Iā€™d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Weā€™ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Second rate reporter says what?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just donā€™t know how.

This blog will pay for itself.

Wow, I canā€™t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I was promised a recession.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Andrew McCabe Broke Some News Today

Andrew McCabe Broke Some News Today

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Apparently a lot of news! McCabe did an extended interview with Nicolle Wallace this afternoon. I’d like to highlight a couple of important items that were revealed.

The question that didn’t get asked, and even if it did, I’m not sure McCabe would have answered it, is whether he’s got a copy of the four page draft that the President wrote to justify firing Comey? If McCabe has a copy, that’s going to make his lawsuit much, much easier. And if he doesn’t, the discovery is going to be amazing.

McCabe apparently made some other news in his chats with the former DOJ and FBI officials who Wallace had booked as her contributing commentators for the remainder of the segment.

According to Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director for National Security (that’s the counterintelligence and counter-terrorism division), McCabe related to Figliuzzi and former DOJ spokesman Matt Miller in the green room before the show that he didn’t open new investigations into the President. Rather, he added the President to the existing and ongoing counterintelligence investigation into the Russian active measures campaign against the US. Figliuzzi also related that McCabe informed them that he also added the obstruction of justice investigation into the President’s actions to that ongoing investigation into the Russian active measures campaign against the US. It is this counterintelligence investigation that Robert Mueller inherited when he was appointed as the special counsel.

I know everyone is stressed right now, especially given CNN’s somewhat credulous reporting andĀ The Washington Post‘s much tighter reporting that the Special Counsel is winding down his investigation. And what that may or may not mean. I know others are still angry that no one was doing anything to stop this from happening as it was happening. What was revealed today, however, confirms what we knew: that something was, indeed, happening. Specifically a counterintelligence investigation had been opened into the President’s campaign, his business, a number of people within the President’s orbit, and then ultimately the President in regard to the Russian active measures campaign against the US.

I have no idea what next week is going to bring, let alone March, but I do know something about counterintelligence and counterintelligence investigations. And that something includes that these things are designed to be completely compartmented, not to leak, and to take as long as they take. Because the purpose of them is to identify, delineate, and then stop the threat to US national security. Sometimes this means prosecutions. A lot of times it doesn’t. The Venona counterintelligence investigation lasted from 1943 until 1980 and the materials it produced weren’t declassified until 1993!

At this point we don’t really know whether the Special Counsel is, indeed, finishing up. Or whether he’s just streamlining for the next phase of the investigation he’s pursuing. Or if he’s just handing everything off to the career prosecutors in the appropriate Federal districts, as well as the appropriate state (New York and Maryland) and local (Washington DC) prosecutors who will bring the rest of the indictments and carry out the rest of the prosecutions based on the work that the Special Counsel’s Office has been conducting for the past two years. But we do know that some people, even as we’ve discovered that they are flawed, working in Federal institutions that don’t always get it right, stood up and made difficult decisions to ensure that the appropriate investigations were opened and situated in a way that they could be conducted.

I’m going to leave the last word here to former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance:

Everybody take a deep breath and cut yourselves and everyone else a little slack. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And as BettyC has highlighted for us all, there’s a new sheriff in DC and she takes her responsibilities as the leader of the co-equal legislative branch of government very seriously. As do her deputies.

Open thread!

PS: I fully expect that if Attorney General Barr tries to bury Special Counsel’s work so it never sees the light of day that it will leak. And before that happens, as was the case with Jeff Sessions and Matt Whitaker, I expect information to leak about Barr and his past actions and activities. As was the case with the leak about Sessions’ contacts with Kislyak that forced his recusal and the leak that the company that Whitaker had been involved with was under Federal investigation, something will be leaked about Barr as a warning shot across the bow. Sessions was smart enough to get the message. I’m not sure if Whitaker was, but it really didn’t seem to matter. We’ll have to wait and see if Barr is as smart as Sessions.

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  2. 2.

    RAVEN

    We know people who are sure this whole thing will result in sedition charges against McCabe and Rosenstein.

  3. 3.

    West of the Rockies

    Okay, maybe we won’t see Trump and Kushner and Co. perp-walked, but there has to be something… Not just a “mistakes were made,” no-consequences report. That would not be justice.

  4. 4.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I’ve watched a few of Mccabe’s interviews and he comes across as an honest straight forward guy. Comey came across as much more calculating and political in what he said. I also would put my money on Mueller, McCabe and the others on the good side in any battle against Trumpov,Barr and Co.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    It’ll be interesting to see how Barr chooses to go down in history. One way or another, he’s going to be consequential.

  6. 6.

    tobie

    McCabe’s acquitted himself well on TV. He seems thoughtful, careful, and always trying to be as dispassionate as possible, which takes some discipline given his situation. I always thought there was something fishy about IG Horowitz’s report and now even more so. Wasn’t he eventually supposed to provide a report on the NY Field Office? Or was he too busy investigating Trump’s targets in the FBI (McCabe, Strzok, Page, etc.)?

  7. 7.

    BlueDWarrior

    Many Institutions are not built to repel internal sabotage while it’s in progress. While we need to continue to try and dislodge Trump now, there will be a lot of institutional damage to repair.

    To say nothing of trying to defuse the Trumpistas…

  10. 10.

    hitchhiker

    The thing is … I’m almost 67. I want to know what the hell happened before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

    Def not feeling patient for all this shit to be declassified!

  11. 11.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    Nobody who worked for Comey’s FBI is going to be viewed by history as a hero. Nobody.
    Pretty sure I remember reading that after he learned he was fired, McCabe thought something along the lines of, I never imagined anything like this could possibly happen.
    And I remember thinking, that’s what an education is for: so that you can learn where your assumptions of how the world works may be wrong.
    fuckem
    all of them

  13. 13.

    EthylEster

    Front pager wrote: McCabe related to Figliuzzi and former DOJ spokesman Matt Miller in the green room before the show that he didnā€™t open new investigations into the President.

    I believe McCabe also made this point in yesterday’s Atlantic interview.

  14. 14.

    BlueDWarrior

    @hitchhiker: the Barbarians stormed the gates and got halfway in. Political theorists figured that America would draw dead selecting a President. Unfortunately we get to live through this social experiment.

  19. 19.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I have nothing to back this up, but I suspect, that now with all eyes upon him and history watching, Barr is suddenly thinking about his legacy.

    He doesn’t seem like a stupid man who is willing to go down with the shit-filled sinking ship that is the Trump administration.

    Unless he’s been promised millions in Russian money. Then all bets are off.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Should be interesting to see what the SC’s investigation does with the president*s written responses…”interesting” in the sense that it is “interesting” what a woodchipper can do to a flimsy, rotten branch.

    It’ll also be interesting to see what I expect are several dozen instances of obstruction cited/referred/noted/whatever by the SC…”any one of which should be considered impeachable or indictable” (actual wording may vary). Several. Dozen.

    And we all know that this report is going to note that basically everyone but trumpov should be/is-being-as-we-speak indicted, right? Jared and Jr, Parscale, Assange, all of them. Note to self: pick up some champagne, stat!

    Put the whole timeline out there, put the couple hundred trumpov team/Russia contacts out there, show us where the money came from and where it went, and then drop the whole hot potato on the US House, Bobby Three Sticks. Nancy Smash has got this, and so do all those state attorneys general.

  22. 22.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Adam L Silverman: I see the weird nyms are showing up.

    Rachel (who I fast forwarded through most of tonight) did a short piece on disinformation regarding 2020 D candidates. I hope we are smarter this time around. When I posted about Harris on twitter, amazing, to me, the trolls that showed up to tell me how awful she was (I have a small twitter footprint, so random dudes – and they all had male profiles – was a surprise)

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    There is something that has been bothering me about the coverage of the special counselā€™s report. There are two reporting requirements for the special counsel statute. The first is a confidential report to the AG. The second required report is from the AG to the congress explaining each action. Itā€™s not optional. Itā€™s required.

    Is the press covering this inaccurately to give the AG an out if he violates the special counsel rules and withholds information from Congress? I fully admit the last few years have made me a bit paranoid but I do find this worrisome.

    ETA remove duplicate sentence

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (HFG): I have been hammering this for weeks behind the scenes through contacts I have in DC who have contacts in Congress with some of the candidates. That every single one of them need to have specialists in influence operations, especially counter disinformation, on their campaign staffs.

  26. 26.

    tobie

    @Baud: Aw shucks…I missed the good news but I hope it’s really good news and that it will help launch you into the big leagues in your 2020 campaign.

  28. 28.

    Aleta

    So Kushner is leaving for the Mideast during the same week the SCO might deliver its report to the DOJ.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: This 13 tweet thread from Neal Katyal, who wrote the regs, should clarify things for you:

  30. 30.

    Yarrow

    @Ohio Mom: He wasn’t specific. It’s in the “good news” thread. He said something that had been an issue for the last couple of years was resolved.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @Aleta: Would be pretty epic to see the president*s de facto chief of staff and son in law have to flee the country ahead of several dozen indictments for conspiracy, money laundering, and ???

    Explain that one, Twitler!

    This clown isn’t even going to make it to 2020, much less run for a 2nd term.

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Right but what Iā€™m seeing and hearing repeated as fact is that Barr gets to decide if the findings are reported to Congress and that isnā€™t true. I donā€™t understand why the press is reporting this incorrectly and it worries me.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    @MomSense:

    Because journalism is hard work requiring the input of experts,

    Hot take click bait journalmentalism is easy, and using your DC platform to disempower the proles is a longstanding tradition,

    and not in a Fiddler on the Roof way.

  42. 42.

    oldgold

    Contemporaneous with the filing of this report, should we expect new indictments to be issued? If the conspiracy prong of this investigation has legs, it seems to me that we should.

    Of course, given the opacity surrounding this investigation, excessively so in my opinion, it is all but impossible to forecast what next week will bring.

  45. 45.

    seaboogie

    Thank you, Adam. I try to take a dispassionate view of such things, and your analysis tends to confirm those instincts. With so much that is norm-busting, itā€™s useful to take a breath, pause and be a bit patient and have faith in the vital institutions that are holding. And I do have faith in Mueller handing off to other prosecutors and leaks as necessary.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @seaboogie: There’s a whole bunch of former US Attorneys, associate US Attorneys, and senior DOJ and FBI officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations – appointees, career civil service, or those who held both types of positions – who are convinced that Mueller isn’t being shut down and/or that Barr will do the right thing and/or that a report may be issued next week, say on the obstruction of justice issue, but that doesn’t mean that Mueller is done. Or that things will be covered up. They all know far more about this than I do and many, if not most of them, know Mueller and Barr so they have a far better read of this than I do.

    Also, as many have said, I think the ongoing SDNY and NY state investigations are going to be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, for the President, his campaign, his business, and/or people in his orbit than the Special Counsel’s investigation.

  53. 53.

    Aleta

    @Adam L Silverman: They’d be fools not to have a few pieds-Ć -terre already positioned here and there. (If you ask me. And I’d send Kush on ahead to stock the refrigerators, get the wifi on. Jk)

  54. 54.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense: They need ratings so if people are nervous and freaked out they’ll stay tuned in to get the next installment. Our political media seem to be masters of the boy who called wolf story.

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    I’m not sure I completely grasp the significance of the news that McCabe added the ASSet to the existing investigation instead of creating a new investigation into obstruction of justice. It seems to revolve around the idea that the inclusion of the obstruction investigation made the original investigation more difficult to close. Why is that? Is it because the act of closing the obstruction of justice investigation could itself be considered obstruction of justice? Or simply because the “President” confessed on national television so that this particular crime couldn’t possibly be closed without explanation?

    To me this is still the “FBI rabbit hole” that Nicole Wallace mentioned in the first clip.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: DVR is set to record. I am prepared!!!!

    I do have a question: on the Leicester Tigers jerseys, on the right chest, just above the corporate sponsor’s logo are little letters. Some have an i, some a w, some an m some a c, some a k, etc. I’ve not seen another team’s jersey’s that have this. What do these mean?

  61. 61.

    randy khan

    Weā€™ll have to wait and see if Barr is as smart as Sessions.

    He used to be in the telecom business, which is where I work. He’s pretty smart. Not a lot of scruples, but definitely smart. (It was annoying to have him on the other side.) That combination does not suggest there will be a huge amount of personal loyalty to Trump if he thinks his interests lie elsewhere.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    I’ll be interested to see if the last thing Rosenstein does on his way out the door is…oops!…release the full report to the full Congress.

    I’ll be interested to see if any of these trumpov crime cartel criminals bolts (and probably equally interesting to the various prosecutors involved, see if they drain accounts X, Y, and Z and/or who they talk to and/or where they run to)

    I’ll be very interested to see if the blessed media could ask once, JUST ONCE, if any of this looks like the actions of an innocent man or innocent campaign, instead of just broadcasting the Mango Menace’s tweets.

    And of course I’ll be extremely interested to see just how many different cases/referrals/whatever are also simulaneously dropped on the various states’ attorneys in question – I think Adam alluded to this up above. The tax evasion and money laundering charges alone already mean that the trumpov crime family is toast.

  68. 68.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: I’m back to being undecided because I was disappointed in some of the things Klobuchar had to say at the CNN Town Hall on healthcare and education. But I did check the twitter feed you linked to and two pieces of info did stand out: Abrams has an event scheduled in NY on Friday, so it may not be possible to meet her in Georgia this week and the fundraiser on Friday is being done with the last Democratic Governor of Georgia Roy Barnes, not Stacy Evans. It’s early in the cycle. If Klobuchar doesn’t meet with Abrams in her next trips to Georgia, that’s troubling. It’s hard to infer anything (yet) from this one visit.

  69. 69.

    Jay

    @sdhays:

    There was an ongoing investigation into ratfuckery by outside and other actors.

    Unindicted Individual #1 was added to the investigations by his actions.

    You donā€™t open a new investigation when a new suspect adds himself to an ongoing one.

  70. 70.

    Yarrow

    So this column is crazy. It’s about a swingers club, a Czech KGB agent who infiltrated the CIA, and John Bolton. Can’t really tell if there’s kompromat on John Bolton, but this claim by him was interesting:

    ā€˜I could, if I really started talking, compromise people in very high positions in the White House and Pentagon. Iā€™m not saying I will not. I may well decide when the moment is right or when sufficiently provoked. I donā€™t think itā€™s worth doing it right now.ā€™

  71. 71.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: The Democrats should have told them that as long as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III’s lacky was a political editor, they didn’t need CNN’s crappy airtime. That’s what the RNC would have done. If I’m not mistaken, CNN’s viewership is pathetic at a distant third for the already not that impressive cable news audience, so there really isn’t that much to lose to just leave them in the cold. With the Republicans going Soviet leader worship for their primary plans, the Democrats are where it’s going to be at for fresh news content. They should make CNN jump for the privilege.

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @satby:

    Double yup.

    The easiest question the MSM could ask but doesnā€™t is:

    Given your crackdown on refugees and migrants, how can you operate your golf courses, build condoā€™s and run hotels with out undocumented labour?

  74. 74.

    dww44

    @RAVEN: That’s distressing to me; it really is. I have been and remain totally gobsmacked that those who support Trump cannot see the all too obvious evidence that has been manifest from before his election. OTOH I’ve a brother who said he didn’t vote for Trump, but as a longtime Fox news watcher he jumped on the whole deep state conspiracy stuff not long after Trump’s inauguration. He and others like that are so very tribal that they refuse to see the truth of who Trump is.

  75. 75.

    Dan B

    @rikyrah: Klobuchar acting like a Russian pawn trying to corner the racist Democrat vote?!? WTF..? Add to that her tendency to go for “uneasy Republicans”. Sheesh!
    What do Democrats stand for? Making anxious white people less anxious?

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Leicester used to use letters to identify their forwards (and later all players). The little letters on the front of some jerseys are a nod to that tradition.

  77. 77.

    Eric S.

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, I am an infrequent commenter, but I am an avid reader of this blog and comments daily. I very much look forward to your view and opinion on Intelligence and Security issues.

  79. 79.

    sdhays

    @Jay: Right… But why is this such a big deal? Or is the “surprise” that up until now we were under the impression that there were two separate investigations, despite the glaringly obvious relationship between the two (e.g. Trump confessing on national television)?

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Millard Filmore: Honestly, with what they were caught with, they were not there for vacation. Iā€™ll be interested to see if that other AR listed in the article is, indeed, an AR 10 – same design as the AR 15, but chambered for 7.62 NATO/308 Winchester or it was chambered for .338 Lapua or 6.5 Creedmore, which are sniper rounds. You can use 7.62 NATO for an intermediate sniper shot, but the only reason to bring an AR pattern rifle chambered above 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington/.223 Wylde, given the rest of the gear, is if you really wanted to reach out and touch someone. And you wanted the rifle to not stand out from the others like a .50 BMG would. And if thatā€™s the case, then Iā€™d expect the AR pattern rifle that isnā€™t an AR15 to be chambered for a sniper round. And that would be either .338 Lapua or 6.5 Creedmore.

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: @Omnes Omnibus: I’ll probably be behind on watching the matches, as usual. OO, I think I remember you like France but they have been disappointing this time around. They seem to be a group of good players that haven’t quite figured out how to be a team.

  84. 84.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: Courting supporters of the losing Senate candidate after the winning Senate candidate seems to be poised to be the key to flipping Georgia blue is…bold.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: I won’t get to Saturday’s games until Sunday as I’ve got a former teammate and good friend coming to town and we’re going to connect and catch up.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yarrow: France is my go-to team (in both rugby and soccer) whenever the US is not present or is eliminated early during international competitions.

  87. 87.

    Eric S.

    @Adam L Silverman:

    a .50 BMG

    What is BMG? I want to say Big Motherf***ing Gun but I assume something more official.

    PS. I comment when I have a solid question or feel I have something to add. My S.A.D. slows me though.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Eric S.: Sorry to read about your S.A.D. My comment wasn’t meant to pressure you, just to make you feel welcome. The way this place works, someone will be along any moment now telling you to fuck off or something…//

    To answer your question, .50 BMG stands for .50 Browning Machine Gun (BMG). Here’s a brief description:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_BMG

    The .50 Browning Machine Gun (.50 BMG, 12.7Ɨ99mm NATO and designated as the 50 Browning by the C.I.P.[1]) is a cartridge developed for the Browning .50 caliber machine gun in the late 1910s, entering official service in 1921. Under STANAG 4383, it is a standard cartridge for NATO forces as well as many non-NATO countries. The cartridge itself has been made in many variants: multiple generations of regular ball, tracer, armor-piercing (AP), incendiary, and saboted sub-caliber rounds. The rounds intended for machine guns are made into a continuous belt using metallic links.

    The .50 BMG cartridge is also used in long-range target and anti-materiel rifles, as well as other .50-caliber machine guns.

    A wide variety of ammunition is available, and the availability of match grade ammunition has increased the usefulness of .50 caliber rifles by allowing more accurate fire than lower quality rounds.[3]

    Much more at the link.

  93. 93.

    dww44

    @Dan B: @sdhays: As a lifelong Georgian, I’m gonna weigh in on the Klobuchar/Stacey E versus Warren/Stacey A.. Stacey Evans was a credible, capable primary opponent with her own appealing message. She showed up in my part of the state and asked for the support of local AA officials long before Abrams did. Evans has been on the GPB Political Rewind roundtable show since the November election and refused to be baited into attacking Stacey Abrams by the host and not too well closeted Republican. Both of our Stacey’s represent the future of our Democratic party and I ask everyone to resist all efforts to divide us.

    Having said that, today’s lead article on the front page of our ostensibly objective local newspaper in this majority minority small city, was titled, in 18 point font, “Abrams appearance at House hearing, political, GOP Says”. The whole article was written from the perspective of the GOP. We must resist tendencies to further divide ourselves and remain focused on the real prize, Democratic control of the Senate and the Presidency in 2020. And never forget, that the GOP, certainly here in this State, is a formidable opponent with a firm grip on all the levers of power.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    AR Clones in 7.62 are pretty common. With the .338 Lupua and the 6.5 Creedmore you lose a lot of the advantages of those rounds in a semi-automatic platform.

    AR/M-14 platforms no matter the caliber are only good out to mid ranges.

    You need a crafted rifle and optics if you really want to reach out and touch someone.

  96. 96.

    Zelma

    @hitchhiker:

    Heck, I’m almost a decade older than you and recovering from my second go round with cancer and I’m even more impatient than you are.

    I always smile ruefully when I hear a commentator suggest what “History will say” about the participants in this tragic farce. As a historian, I know that the “winners” get to shape History. As someone who is all too aware that the human race is in great peril, I wonder if there will be History written.

  97. 97.

    seaboogie

    @Adam L Silverman: I really want exposure to go as far as McConnell. I want to l know why he he is doing everything he can to break this country. My money is on Ru$$ia and a diagnosis of sociopathy.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: There are custom AR builds for .337 Lapua and 6.5 Creedmore, as well as 6.8 Grendel and 6.8 Wylde and 300 Blackout and 300 WinMag. These are $2,000 to $3,000 ARs. They are precisely tuned rifles.

  100. 100.

    sdhays

    @dww44: Noted. I was responding to the suggestion that Klobuchar was focusing on Evans rather than Abrams, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that wasn’t the case at all. It would seem pretty stupid to blow off the woman who just gave the well-received response to the State of the Union.

  103. 103.

    Eric S.

    @Adam L Silverman: FWIW, I didn’t feel pressured and I’ve always felt welcomed here. I thank you for the consideration. I have been learning to cope with ot for s few years now and understand it had been a part of me for 4 decades. Admitting it “out loud” helps.

  104. 104.

    Scotian

    @seaboogie: @Adam L Silverman: I really want exposure to go as far as McConnell. I want to l know why he he is doing everything he can to break this country. My money is on Ru$$ia and a diagnosis of sociopathy.

    This, this, a thousand times this!!!

    Well, all but the last sentence at least, that is a little too ski forward for me at this time.

    I’ve thought it was tunnel vision, and being so used to ends justifying means given the realities within GOP national politics since the mid 70s, for an agenda I do not know how much he truly believes in versus believes in being seen as a champion of, either way though, this man scares as well as infuriates me. Worse, in his case the primary drivers of that fury is based on his appalling destructive rules mechanic approach to Senate operations. I am a process geek at heart in no small part because I get why process and understanding it is important in general and especially so where governance is concerned!

    Mitch McConnell is long believed to have prevented exposure of Vlad’s real time operations in 2016 all because it was helping to hurt HRC, pure and simple. Of course one can cite other reasons too, but the main goal was stopping her. I can see a very dangerous moral relativism married to political end-goals in his case which would leave him in a very “for the greater good of conservativism and my place within it’s legacy” headspace. He terrifies me because of just how sanctimonious he sounds when he opposes something and then even worse when he praises something (because one are looking for the hidden knife I expect).

    I do pay him his due…I won’t let anyone compare our former CPC PM Stephen Harper to Trump, it is an insult to Harper, who I opposed utterly from well before his rise to power. McConnell is the closest fair comparison, and even then I have to give Harper more respect than Yurtle the Turtle. His is a story that NEEDS to be fully and publicly known as a lesson and warning, whatever it is, that can make a man able to do what he has done.

  105. 105.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Iā€™ve shot some of them, even benched them.

    They are ā€œMarksmanā€ rifles, good enough for urban overwatch, like a tuned M-14,

    But they wonā€™t shoot a silver dollar even from the bench.

    The ā€œinterestingā€ aspect of the seized guns is the armoury numbers on some of them.

  107. 107.

    tobie

    @dww44: I’m not a Georgian but I did check Daniel Strauss’ twitter feed and it seems like he’s really distorting the nature of the event. Klobuchar is not fundraising with Stacy Evans. Evan’s name does not appear anywhere in the event invitation. She’s fundraising with Georgia’s last Democratic governor Roy Barnes. There are legitimate reasons to critique Klobuchar’s candidacy. You could talk about the status quo nature of her healthcare plan, her tepid response to the problem of college debt, etc. That is all fair game. But the suggestion that she’s “acting like a Russian pawn trying to corner the racist Democrat vote” (comment #75) is way off the mark.

  108. 108.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman:

    every single one of them need to have specialists in influence operations, especially counter disinformation, on their campaign staffs

    How does one get involved in that? That sounds like something I would stay focused on

  111. 111.

    Gloomyjim

    @Jay:

    The ā€œinterestingā€ aspect of the seized guns is the armoury numbers on some of them.

    Could you expand upon this? Assume I am stoopid about what an armoury # is, because I am.

    Dedthred…looks like I get to fondly remember dogpile whilst I fire up the googles…

  112. 112.

    Mike Furlan

    Nicolle Wallace, would have been on trial as a minor war criminal if we had somehow lost Iraq War 2. Why do we care what she thinks about anything now? Shame on MSNBC, and everyone who works with her.

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