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Trump Finally Admits His Campaign Colluded With Russia At Trump Tower Meeting

The latest version of the 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer basically undercuts numerous Trump claims.

WASHINGTON ? Forty times President Donald Trump has posted statements on Twitter asserting “NO COLLUSION” with Russia during the 2016 election. He made the claim standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month, and then a day later during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Sunday, he negated all of that by admitting that his campaign had tried to collude with Russia to win the presidency, after all.

Trump wrote in an 8:35 a.m. post on Twitter that the purpose of a June 9, 2016, gathering at Trump Tower was “to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics ? and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!”

That new admission, however, is completely at odds with the statement Trump crafted for use in the July 2017 news story that first reported the Trump Tower meeting. In that statement, he falsely claimed that the session attended by his eldest son and other high-ranking campaign aides was “primarily” about the adoption of Russian children.

“Donald Trump is every attorney’s worst nightmare,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican political consultant and prominent Trump critic. “He combines a complete lack of personal discipline with an impulse to place himself at ever greater risk of prosecution. He’s the ‘Bad Idea Jeans’ of presidents.”

Just a half hour after Trump’s new tweet, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow admitted that he had put out falsehoods last year when he also claimed that the meeting was about adoption.

“I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” program, before continuing attacks on the integrity of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in U.S. politics, a strategy Trump personally began from the time he took office.

Sekulow ? whose career has made him an expert on school voucher and religious freedom cases, not criminal law – claimed that meeting with Russians tied to their country’s government with the goal of getting assistance to win a U.S. election was not illegal.

“The question is how would it be illegal?” Sekulow said. “The question is, what law, statute or rule or regulation has been violated? No one has pointed to one.”

In reality, numerous criminal lawyers have pointed out that colluding with a foreign power to win an election or even attempting to do so may constitute conspiracy against the United States.

That Sekulow had misstated the origin of the July 2017 statement provided to The New York Times and attributed to Donald Trump Jr. became clear earlier this year, in a leaked letter from Trump’s legal team to Mueller’s office. In it, lawyers stated that Trump had dictated the statement written aboard Air Force One as it flew back from the G-20 summit in Germany. At the time, Trump and his White House had falsely claimed that he had only offered his input into the crafting of the statement.

While Trump has claimed since taking office that “no collusion” occurred between his campaign and Russia and that Mueller was conducting a “witch hunt,” Trump’s acceptance of Russian help has been out in the open since the final month of the 2016 campaign.

Throughout that October, Trump cited emails disseminated by WikiLeaks on a near daily basis ? even though he began receiving briefings in August 2016 that told him that U.S. intelligence agencies had determined those emails had been stolen by Russian spies. U.S. intelligence made that assessment public in an Oct. 7 statement.

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Those who doubt the efficacy of shutdowns and mandated social distancing in slowing the spread of Covid-19 may want to look at the grim lesson learned by Sweden. Or more specifically, by its elderly, a large number of whom critics say died needlessly thanks in part to the government’s approach to the pandemic. Gyms, schools, restaurants and shops have stayed open throughout the country, which has been good for the economy but bad for longevity: Sweden’s death rate is about 32 per 100,000, compared with 24 in the U.S., the global epicenter, and roughly 9 in Denmark, which took a much stricter approach.

Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly contradicted his boss, President Donald Trump, in warning against many more unnecessary deaths on top of the 81,000 Americans already lost to the pandemic (though he conceded the true number is likely higher). While Trump has said more American dead is a price he is willing to pay for “ reopening” the economy, his adviser was decidedly less fatalistic in virtual testimony before the Senate Tuesday. Fauci cautioned against loosening restrictions in states where infection rates are still high, especially in a nation that remains woefully unprepared for the necessary testing and tracing. He also dressed down Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky when the Republican insisted kids return to school in the fall. Fauci pointed to a new, deadly syndrome affecting children that may be tied to Covid-19.

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Pelosi tells Dems she wants to see Trump ‘in prison’

She also clashed with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who pressed her to begin impeachment proceedings.

By HEATHER CAYGLE

06/05/2019 09:50 PM EDT

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told senior Democrats that she’d like to see President Donald Trump “in prison” as she clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a meeting on Tuesday night over whether to launch impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi met with Nadler (D-N.Y.) and several other top Democrats who are aggressively pursuing investigations against the president, according to multiple sources. Nadler and other committee leaders have been embroiled in a behind-the-scenes turf battle for weeks over ownership of the Democrats’ sprawling investigation into Trump.

Nadler pressed Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump — the second such request he’s made in recent weeks only to be rebuffed by the California Democrat and other senior leaders. Pelosi stood firm, reiterating that she isn’t open to the idea of impeaching Trump at this time.

“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. Instead of impeachment, Pelosi still prefers to see Trump defeated at the ballot box and then prosecuted for his alleged crimes, according to the sources.

They said she was expressing solidarity with pro-impeachment Democrats who want to hold the president accountable while disputing the idea that it is now time to take that step. Pelosi has long argued that certain conditions must be met before Democrats begin impeachment — public support and strong bipartisan backing, neither of which have so far materialized..

Other Democrats said Pelosi’s comment wasn’t that surprising given her previous criticisms of the president, including saying Trump “is engaged in a cover-up,” that his staff and family should stage an intervention and that the president’s actions “are villainous to the Constitution of the United States.”

Ashley Etienne, a Pelosi spokeswoman said Pelosi and the chairmen “had a productive meeting about the state of play with the Mueller report. They agreed to keep all options on the table and continue to move forward with an aggressive hearing and legislative strategy, as early as next week, to address the president’s corruption and abuses of power uncovered in the report.”

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) were also present for the meeting. Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — a vocal impeachment supporter whose panel is probing Trump’s finances — was not in attendance.

In Tuesday’s meeting, some committee chairs expressed frustration about the appearance that rank-and-file members — rather than party leaders — were leading the caucus’ oversight strategy, including what they do on impeachment, according to one source familiar with the meeting.

But not all committee leaders were supportive of the impeachment inquiry. Both Schiff and Neal argued that if Democrats are going to open an inquiry, they should also be prepared to impeach Trump, which the caucus isn’t ready to do, they said. Cummings also sided with Pelosi, according to a source.

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Clint Eastwood Ditches Donald Trump for Mike Bloomberg in 2020 Election

Jordan Moreau
Variety February 22, 2020, 4:29 PM EST

Longtime Republican Clint Eastwood is pulling support from Donald Trump in the 2020 election. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the actor-director signaled that he thinks a different candidate would be the better choice.

“The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there,” he said.

After endorsing Mitt Romney and famously delivering a speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention to an empty chair that represented Barack Obama, Eastwood never officially backed Trump. In a 2016 interview, he expressed displeasure with Trump.

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Neil Young blasts President Trump as a ‘disgrace to my country’ and will support Bernie Sanders’ candidacy

President Trump has been a fan of Neil Young’s music for years, although that may change after Young’s latest broadside against him

By George Varga
Feb. 19, 2020
2:30 PM

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young hasn’t written a scathing song about President Trump yet, but that may be only a matter of time.

The Canadian-born music legend became an American citizen in late January, specifically so he could vote in the 2020 presidential election, but he isn’t wasting any time sharing his thoughts.
On Tuesday, Young posted an “open letter” to President Trump on his Neil Young Archives Times-Contrarian website. Young’s missive blasted Trump, while also announcing his strong support for Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

As he did in his in his 2006 song “Let’s Impeach the President” and in his classic 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young protest anthem “Ohio” — which excoriated then-President Nixon and mourned the deaths of four anti-war protesters at the hands of the National Guard — Young does not hold back.
“You are a disgrace to my country,” Young, 74, writes to Trump, 73.

Intriguingly, as far back as 2008, Trump had declared himself a big fan of Young, saying at the time: “I’ve met (Young) on occasions and he’s a terrific guy.”

As of this writing, Trump has not used his widely read Twitter page to acknowledge or respond to Young’s open letter attacking him.

“Bragging about the U.S. economy does not disguise the fact that the numbers today are what you inherited 4 years ago,” Young continues. “Your mindless destruction of our shared natural resources, our environment and our relationships with friends around the world is unforgivable. Your policies, decisions and short term thinking continue to exacerbate the Climate Crisis. Our first black president was a better man than you are.

“The United States of America, my country, is not a green on one of your branded golf courses that you can ride around on and damage so that other players cannot shoot straight.”

Young, who in 1984 voiced his support for then-President Ronald Reagan, also uses his open letter to take Trump to task for his use of Young’s 1989 song, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” at Trump’s rallies.
“Every time ‘Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World’ or one of my songs is played at your rallies, I hope you hear my voice. Remember it is the voice of a tax-paying U.S. citizen who does not support you. Me.”

Young concludes by letting Trump know exactly which candidate Young is supporting. “One of your opponents has the answers I like,” Young writes. “He is aiming at preserving our children’s future directly. He is not pandering to the industries accelerating Earth’s Climate Disaster, the end of the world as we know it.