Pretty much every day or so a new tie between the Trump campaign and the Russians appears. Documents from a lawmaker in the Ukraine link Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort with money laundering for Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed former Ukrainian president who was propped up by Moscow and is now wanted on corruption charges but is hiding out in Russia. Manafort worked for Yahukovych for almost a decade.
So how does the Trump administration respond to this? Do they defend Manafort against the charges? No, they throw him under the bus and pretend they really don’t know Manafort at all. Press secretary Sean Spicer blatantly lied that Manafort “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the Trump campaign. Spicer claimed that Manafort joined the campaign “in June”, when he actually started in March.
As for having a limited role in the campaign, when Ted Cruz suspended his campaign for president during the primaries, securing the nomination for Trump, the first person that Trump thanked in his victory speech was Paul Manafort.
Even allies of Trump said that Spicer was “delusional” for his comments attempting to deny connections between Trump and Manafort.
And Manafort officially left the Trump campaign in August when reports of his work for pro-Russian leaders (including Yanukovych) started to get attention. But Manafort kept working for Trump, including after the election.
As one Republican put it “Sean Spicer goes out there everyday, and the people who speak for the president, and they know what their marching orders are, and it’s not telling the truth. It’s telling the truth as Donald Trump perceives it to be.”
What I find particularly hypocritical is that the Trump administration will lie about anything, including simple, verifiable facts.
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I’m not sure what far beyond hypocrisy is, but I think we need another word for it. The Trumpanoids have taken it to a new level. Maybe trumpocrisy?
It is becoming clearer why the Trump administration is going to such lengths to distance themselves from Manafort. It’s another day, so there is a new story that Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire (and Putin associate) for almost a decade, getting paid $10 million a year. “Manafort proposed a strategy to influence politics and business inside the US and Europe” to “greatly benefit the Russian government“.
Note that people lobbying for a foreign government are required to register as a foreign agent, and Manafort did not do that. Failure to register is a felony.
It gets worse. Once Manafort stopped (officially) working for Trump, one of his close business associates, Rick Gates, took over and has recently been involved with deals with the same Russian billionaire. “Gates is one of four people leading a Trump-blessed group that defends the president’s agenda. As recently as last week, he was at the White House to meet with officials as part of that work.“
Is it too early to suggest that the Republican party has been under the influence of the Putin since around 2006 when the Democrats won so many elections?
Or to paraphrase the immortal words of Billy Shakespeare, “Spicey, thou dost protest too much!”.
Have you guys seen this one yet? What is it, two this week alone, nearly 10 highly suspicious hits on Putin critics this year already? Two is a coincidence, perhaps. More is a business plan.
>> In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday evening — less than 72 hours before his death — Voronenkov complained about anonymous threats against him and his wife, Maria Maksakova, a former member of the United Russia party founded by Putin, with whom he fled to Kiev last year…“For our personal safety, we can’t let them know where we are,” he said toward the end of the hour-long interview. “It’s a totally amoral system and in its anger it may go to extreme measures. There’s been a demonization of us. It’s hard to say what will happen…The system has lost its mind…It’s hard to imagine we will be forgiven.” <<
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunman-in-ukraine-kills-putin-foe-in-attack-denounced-as-state-terrorism/2017/03/23/72ddd20e-0fc7-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html?utm_term=.5c4f1ef589ea
How many more must be thrown under the bus, shot, or poisoned with radioactive polonium before people come out from under Agent Orange's perverted spell?
Ralph – “More is a business plan.” I rarely use internet acronyms but here goes….ROTFLMFAO.
JWHAT – LOL…TYVM!
“Hypocritical” may not be the right word even though he did at one time use “lyin'” as a preface to other candidates’ names BUT this is clearly typical for Trump and he does. not. care.
The Trump line is basically, “So, I’m a liar. My supporters KNEW I was a liar then, and I’m no more a liar now, and they elected me anyway. YOU elected me. I’m golden.”
I frankly see no indication this will change any time soon.
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