Latest news with #Russiagate
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tulsi Gabbard Helps Boost Trump's Russia Crusade, Calling for Prosecution of Obama Officials
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic lawmaker who has since turned MAGA, is helping her boss President Donald Trump try to rewrite the history of 2016 to match his preferred talking points. On Friday, Gabbard called for the Obama administration to be 'prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' alleging a 'conspiracy' by which officials 'manufactured' intelligence to claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost Trump's presidential campaign. Multiple investigations over the past eight years have found that Russia tried to undermine Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and bolster Trump, by leaking documents from the Democratic National Committee. The 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, published during Trump's first term, found that Russia meddled in the election specifically to boost Trump's campaign. These findings have helped foster Trump's grudge against the intel community and the 'deep state.' Trump has long called 'Russiagate' a hoax. Gabbard, her press release claims, declassified documents that 'revealed overwhelming evidence' allegedly showing Obama and national security officials 'manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.' It's an ironic claim given that Trump supporters actually did attempt a coup on Jan. 6, and he pardoned them. The Obama administration's 'goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,' Gabbard posted on X. 'No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The integrity of our democratic republic depends on it.' She added that the documents will be turned over to the Department of Justice for criminal referral. These allegations arrive while Trump is in the spotlight over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that an investigation already found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. 'The Senate Intel Committee unanimously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election,' he said in a post on X. 'If there had been some Obama conspiracy, we would have found it. This latest lie is another sad, dangerous example of Tulsi Gabbard trying to rewrite history and erode trust in the [intelligence community].' CNN reported earlier this month that the FBI is investigating former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whom are named in the documents. Lawmakers questioned Gabbard, who was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait as part of her service in the Army National Guard and has defended Russia's 2020 invasion of Ukraine, over her possible sympathies with Russia during her confirmation hearings. More from Rolling Stone Democrats Are Preparing a Deliberately Incomplete 2024 Election Autopsy These Right-Wingers Won't Shut Up About Epstein, No Matter What Trump Says Trump Sues Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch Over Report on Epstein Birthday Letter Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tulsi Gabbard Helps Boost Trump's Russia Lies, Calling for Prosecution of Obama Officials
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic lawmaker who has since turned MAGA, is helping her boss President Donald Trump try to rewrite the history of 2016 to match his preferred talking points. On Friday, Gabbard called for the Obama administration to be 'prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' alleging a 'conspiracy' by which officials 'manufactured' intelligence to claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost Trump's presidential campaign. Multiple investigations over the past eight years have found that Russia tried to undermine Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and bolster Trump, by leaking documents from the Democratic National Committee. The 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, published during Trump's first term, found that Russia meddled in the election specifically to boost Trump's campaign. These findings have helped foster Trump's grudge against the intel community and the 'deep state.' Trump has long called 'Russiagate' a hoax. Gabbard, her press release claims, declassified documents that 'revealed overwhelming evidence' allegedly showing Obama and national security officials 'manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.' It's an ironic claim given that Trump supporters actually did attempt a coup on Jan. 6, and he pardoned them. The Obama administration's 'goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,' Gabbard posted on X. 'No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The integrity of our democratic republic depends on it.' She added that the documents will be turned over to the Department of Justice for criminal referral. These allegations arrive while Trump is in the spotlight over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that an investigation already found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. 'The Senate Intel Committee unanimously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election,' he said in a post on X. 'If there had been some Obama conspiracy, we would have found it. This latest lie is another sad, dangerous example of Tulsi Gabbard trying to rewrite history and erode trust in the [intelligence community].' CNN reported earlier this month that the FBI is investigating former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whom are named in the documents. Lawmakers questioned Gabbard, who has defended Russia's 2020 invasion of Ukraine, over her possible sympathies with Russia during her confirmation hearings. Former aides alleged that she regularly consumed media from RT, the Kremlin's propaganda outlet. 'Behind closed doors, people think she might be compromised. Like it's not hyperbole,' a GOP aide told The Hill last December. 'There are members of our conference who think she's a [Russian] asset.' 'We've got your back, Tulsi,' RT posted on X in January. More from Rolling Stone Democrats Are Preparing a Deliberately Incomplete 2024 Election Autopsy These Right-Wingers Won't Shut Up About Epstein, No Matter What Trump Says Trump Sues Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch Over Report on Epstein Birthday Letter Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Scrambles to Create a Distraction From Epstein Files
Donald Trump is desperate for anything to distract the angry mob seeking answers on alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now, he's hoping to toss them some dirt on Hillary Clinton—too bad nobody cares about that. During an appearance Wednesday on Real America's Voice, Just the News founder John Solomon reported that Trump was open to declassifying information tied to conspiracy theories about the former secretary of state. One piece was the classified annex of Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2018 report on the FBI's actions ahead of the 2016 election. The missing annex had become the center of right-wing conspiracies that the FBI had ignored credible information of Clinton's wrongdoing in the investigation of her private email server. When asked if he'd declassify the annex, Trump told Just the News, 'I would do that.' 'Absolutely. I think it should be looked at. The whole thing was a scam. I would do that broadly,' Trump said. Trump also indicated he was open to declassifying another classified annex from Special Counsel John Durham's 2023 report, which supposedly contained evidence that Clinton had approved a proposal to 'vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.' 'I would declassify it, yeah. Why not?' Trump told Just the News. 'I would absolutely declassify it.' But Trump's promises are far from an actual commitment. Trump had previously pledged the 'total declassification of any & all documents' related to Russiagate and Clinton's use of a private email server during his first term, but attorneys from the Department of Justice told the Office of White House Council to simply disregard the president's hollow threat. Trump has been increasingly desperate to redirect the massive backlash over his administration's toothless findings in its investigation into Epstein, which produced no additional documents and found that the sex offender kept no incriminating 'client list,' even though his attorney general claimed one had been sitting on her desk. The president posted a furious rant on Truth Social Tuesday, saying that any of his followers who were interested in the Epstein case were falling for Democratic 'bullshit,' and compared it to the 'totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary Clinton's big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election.' Similarly to Russia's interference in the 2016 election, Trump now claims that Epstein files are a 'hoax.' Unfortunately for Trump, Americans don't care about Clinton's emails nearly as much as they care about his own administration's scandal: Signalgate, the infamous use of a non-secure messaging app by several top Cabinet officials to discuss sensitive war plans. After Signalgate, a YouGov survey found that nearly 75 percent of respondents believed the scandal was 'very' or 'somewhat' serious. After Clinton's email scandal in 2015, YouGov found that 56 percent of respondents thought the issue was 'very serious' and 'somewhat serious.' By 2022, people had become more concerned, but only 62 percent saw it as 'very serious' or 'somewhat serious,' likely at least in part resulting from Trump's constant griping about it. Meanwhile, a Quinnpac Poll published Wednesday found that 63 percent of American voters disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files. Trump's looking for anything at all that can distract the angry mob. Just in case the almond moms were sharpening their pitchforks, Trump even promised that he would get real sugar added to Coca Cola instead of high fructose corn syrup. Now there's something everyone can get behind!
The Hill
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Trump and Wiles are like a new Madden and Summerall
Like President Trump or not, his second term is going much better for him than his first was. This time eight years ago, his presidency was in disarray, reeling from the Russiagate probe and the Senate's rejection of ObamaCare repeal. That's night and day from the current administration's early victories from the tax-and-spending megabill, immigration and universal injunctions. Even European leaders and Ivy League universities are now heeding Trump's demands. The president's approval ratings are 5 percentage points higher now than at the same time in his first term, according to the RealClearPolitics aggregate poll. Pundits have credited White House chief of staff Susie Wiles for the new administration's winning streak. But less has been written on how Wiles, who ran Trump's successful 2024 election campaign, has prevailed where others have failed in instilling discipline in the notoriously free-wheeling Trump operation. A clue to understanding why the president and his chief of staff have synched so far comes from an unexpected place — the legendary NFL broadcasting duo of John Madden and Pat Summerall, who is also Wiles's late father. The on-air magic of Madden and Summerall played a pivotal role in the modern NFL's dominance over virtually everything else on television. It also helps explain how Wiles has succeeded in supporting another famously unscripted communicator. Like Trump and Wiles, Madden and Summerall made an unlikely team. Summerall was reserved and courtly, with a pitch perfect voice he honed over years of calling professional golf, tennis, basketball and football games. Madden, who died in 2021, was high-energy, loquacious, and prone to hilarious stream-of-consciousness commentaries. Sound familiar? They were paired together for the first time by happenstance when Summerall's normal broadcasting partner was unavailable. Madden was in his rookie year as an announcer and still perfecting the mechanics of calling games. A particular struggle for him was to avoid continuing his color commentary through commercial breaks. While Summerall was already at the top of the sports broadcasting world, Madden wasn't even sure the network would bring him back for another game. But just like when Wiles met Trump for the first time in 2016, Summerall focused on Madden's strengths, not his rough edges. He immediately noticed Madden's intense preparation. Wiles was similarly taken by Trump's 'smarts' and 'unparalleled work ethic.' She recognized that Trump delivered an alternative to the 'traditional Republican' way of approaching voters, which had outlived its effectiveness. He spoke in a way that ordinary people could understand, and not in the 'prescribed protocols' of how a politician is supposed to speak. Madden likewise was never one to put on airs. As the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s, he had only three rules: be on time, pay attention and play like hell on Sunday. The players rewarded the trust Madden put in them. He retired with a Super Bowl ring and the highest winning percentage of anyone who had coached at least 100 games in the NFL. As an announcer, Madden's greatest gift was that he never talked down to his audience. He was the opposite of the vastly overrated Howard Cosell, who defined sports broadcasting in the 1970s. While Cosell deplored 'insipid drivel about the 4-3 defense,' Madden reveled in breaking down the gritty mechanics of football and glorified the players in the trenches. 'When you got steam coming out of your head and your mouth,' he said in one vintage riff about Dallas Cowboy defensive lineman Nate Newton, 'now you're talking football.' Viewers loved it. Madden and Summerall turned NFL football into must-see TV. The reason they worked so well together is that Summerall respected Madden's unique gifts and showed up prepared to provide the succinct play-by-play narration that frequently punctuated his counterpart's free-flowing riffs. As Wiles noted in an interview with the New York Post's Miranda Devine, her father had to work intensely to make announcing seem effortless, compared to today, when 'anything you want to know about any athlete' is readily available online. Wiles seems to have taken a page from her father in approaching her role. Wiles picked up early on that Trump, like Madden, is a natural communicator. Say what you will about the president's policies, he has a real bond with his base, many of whom are not traditional Republicans. Similar to her dad's broadcasting partner, Trump forged the bond because he speaks directly, even if unconventionally when compared with past presidents. For her part, Wiles isn't trying to play the traditional role of gatekeeper. She sees her job as giving her boss 'more inputs, not less, more information, not less' and then reining in the process so the president can make a decision that the administration can execute. So far, it's working. 'The president is having fun,' Wiles recently remarked. And his agenda is getting done.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
John Brennan emerged as prominent anti-Trump media figure long before latest DOJ probe into Russiagate origins
Former CIA director John Brennan, who is being investigated over his handling of the 2016 Russia probe, played a key role in pushing Russiagate and other anti-Trump conspiracies as an MSNBC contributor. Justice Department sources told Fox News Digital on July 8 that current CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred evidence of wrongdoing from Brennan along with former FBI Director James Comey to current FBI Director Kash Patel for potential prosecution, citing Brennan's handling of the 2017 Russia collusion investigation as an example. Brennan was appointed by President Obama and served as the director of the CIA from March 2013 until President Trump took office in 2017. Brennan's final year on the job was a busy one, as he helped launch the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia during the 2016 election cycle. Brennan made notable appearances on both CNN and MSNBC throughout 2017 until he was announced as an MSNBC and NBC News paid contributor in March 2018. He also penned an August 2018 New York Times op-ed that mirrored much of his cable news rhetoric. Brennan's piece, "President Trump's Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash," insisted a criminal conspiracy was a legitimate possibility. "The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of 'Trump Incorporated' attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets," Brennan wrote. The investigation was taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who ultimately concluded in March 2019 that there was insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Brennan then appeared on MSNBC to declare, "I don't know if I received bad information, but I suspected there was more [evidence of collusion] than there actually was." According to Brennan's own notes, cited in Special Counsel John Durham's report on the origins of the FBI's Russiagate investigation, he briefed Obama and other national security officials on intel that "alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services." He then briefed Comey about his meeting with Obama the day prior but told investigators he did not think he presented the intelligence regarding what Durham dubbed the "Clinton Plan" to the FBI director. Days later, he met with Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden and other top officials, including then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, briefing them all about the "Clinton Plan intelligence" among other material pertaining to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Despite his public acknowledgments in 2019 and his private knowledge of Clinton's scheme during the 2016 election, Brennan regularly fueled the legitimacy of Russiagate as the Mueller investigation was ongoing. In March 2018, after Trump accused the Obama administration of starting an investigation into his campaign "with zero proof of wrongdoing" before the election, suggesting it was to help Clinton win, Brennan told him his social media post was "a great example of your paranoia, constant misrepresentation of the facts, and increased anxiety and panic (rightly so) about the Mueller investigation." Days later, Brennan suggested Trump's congenial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin was because Russia "may have things that they could expose and reveal" about him. Brennan called Trump's "SpyGate" accusations a "mischaracterization and dishonesty" in May 2018. Brennan also threw around the term "treason," which allowed mainstream journalists and pundits to echo the claim on a regular basis under the guise that it came from the intelligence community. "That was Brennan who said it, the former CIA director; it wasn't the media… it was the former CIA director," then-CNN host Chris Cuomo insisted in 2018 after a guest said the media was pushing the term "treason." Many believed the failure to find collusion marked the end of Brennan's time as a political pundit, but he has maintained a regular presence on MSNBC. But it was hardly the only time Brennan's credibility faced scrutiny. In October 2020, Brennan was one of 51 former senior intelligence officials who signed a letter insisting Hunter Biden's scandal-plagued laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation," which was quickly used by legacy news outlets to dismiss the laptop altogether. The laptop has since been verified as authentic, another anti-Trump talking point pushed by Brennan that failed to live up to liberal expectations. The Brennan investigation comes after Ratcliffe declassified a "lessons learned" review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) earlier this month. The 2017 ICA alleged Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Donald Trump. But the review found that the process of the ICA's creation was rushed with "procedural anomalies," and that officials diverted from intelligence standards. It also determined that the decision to include the Steele dossier, a now-widely discredited anti-Trump document, "ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment." Records declassified as part of that review further revealed that Brennan did, in fact, push for the dossier to be included in the 2017 ICA. Brennan testified to the House Judiciary Committee in May 2023, however, that he did not believe the dossier should be included in that intelligence product. The day after the investigation was reported, Brennan appeared on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" with Nicolle Wallace to downplay the ordeal. "I'm really shocked that individuals are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency to continue to do Donald Trump's bidding, on something that clearly is just politically based," Brennan told MSNBC viewers.
