It's Official, Trump's Team Full Contact with Russian Intelligence.

[Jeezy911]

What exactly do you call Trump winning?

A bunch of crybaby's that can't handle the fact their side didn't win. If they go for impeachment, the Trump supporters will start fighting back. This would probably include Armed Protests. That's where Democrats want to go?

[schwarzkopf]

I hope you realize, that if what is reported is true, this is bigger than Watergate. It's bigger than e-mails, it's bigger than Benghazi.

What I'm unsure of is this ... lets assume for a moment that a significant portion of Trump's inner circle is implicated in this, and everyone decides to 'do something' about it.

A normal impeachment won't work, what would happen?

As it stands Pence seems rational and clean (his idiotic politics aside), would he just appoint a new VP? Can he ? The normal processes seem to fall apart if this level of behaviour is true ?

[Slant]

Seriously?

Why are you are trying to excuse our current president being in contact with the spy agencies of an enemy power?

Well... technically, being in contact with the Russians isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the modern world we call it "diplomacy". The crucial bit is what the contact's nature is and what they're discussing. If they're merely discussing what nation's leaders discuss every time they sit down together, who cares? It's business as usual. This will only ignite if Trump makes weird concessions to the Russians or offers them the US on a silver plate. The latter I doubt very much. Nobody can be that stupid. Not even Trump. The first? Well... depends on what you consider a weird concession. Gorbachev was the first to disarm nukes, I'm sure many in the Soviet Union figured that to be a weird concession, but it progressed the world into a better place. At least for a while.

Now... thing is, Russia isn't an equal to the US. So the US wouldn't need to make any concessions at all. If the hardliner dogma from JFK held true during the cold war, it sure as hell should not be abandoned when the opposing side isn't in the position to bargain at all.

[Jeezy911]

No. This is isn't about the Logan act. Given that Trump has been in contact with the spy agencies of a foreign enemy power and has sought to advance their interests (removing sanctions which he is on record as already having tried to do) then what he has done is treason.

Wrong.You have proof that his intention was to advance their interests? Good luck in court.

[Wells]

Interesting times to be in.

[Torgent]

What I'm unsure of is this ... lets assume for a moment that a significant portion of Trump's inner circle is implicated in this, and everyone decides to 'do something' about it.

A normal impeachment won't work, what would happen?

As it stands Pence seems rational and clean (his idiotic politics aside), would he just appoint a new VP? Can he ? The normal processes seem to fall apart if this level of behaviour is true ?

It really seems like they are setting this up. They are making sure to paint Pence as the innocent guy who was lied to.

[chrisnumbers]

So if Trump was in contact with Russia, he's screwed yes? Quick question:
Let's assume that Trump himself was not in contact, and let's go so far as to say he had no knowledge of these communications--go along for a sec.
Does this delegitimize his election? This is crazyyyyy

[Baneth]

A bunch of crybaby's that can't handle the fact their side didn't win. If they go for impeachment, the Trump supporters will start fighting back. This would probably include Armed Protests. That's where Democrats want to go?

Bring it on trumpkin. You'll get droned by a bunch of nerds, sitting at their desks, eating domino's and sipping mountain dew.

[Shelly]

Is there something that forbids them from "being in contact" with certain Russians?
Hopefully someone here can cite some law or something, I'm no expert. I'd like to read it.

Yes and no.

No, there's no law regarding just being in contact with foreign powers.

However there is a law - the Logan Act previously mentioned - that states you're not supposed to talk or try to set policy if you're not the actual president of the united states or an agent under their authority.

So depending on what was said in these calls there could be problems, but the real problem area is between November when Trump was elected and January when he took office. At that point Trump and his agents were waiting to take power but not yet in power, as such any moves they made regarding foreign policy - especially in contrary to the administration in governance - would be considered a violation of the Logan Act and possibly treasonous depending on just how they went.

More than anything what these phone calls prior to Trump being president-elect are a way of tracking down stuff that could have occurred in the 3 months between election and inauguration. If they correlate between then it's a true problem.

[schwarzkopf]

That's where Democrats want to go?

This has not been about democrat v republican for months - Republicans WON ...that's done.

This is about preventing the dismantling of the US and possibly the world as we know them.

I disagree with 100% of what Pence stands for, but Pence is a sane person who probably doesn't want the US to end (I'm still monitoring that particular situation).

[Shadowmelded]

Jesus, I didn't have internet for a day and it feels like 2 months of news happened in the interim. Also hahahahaha.

[Slant]

A bunch of crybaby's that can't handle the fact their side didn't win. If they go for impeachment, the Trump supporters will start fighting back. This would probably include Armed Protests. That's where Democrats want to go?

Um, you seem to think the Republicans want Trump. They don't. They're just playing along as long as he suits their agenda. You'll be surprised at how fast they drop him once he damages their party. Hot coal couldn't drop faster than Trump will, eventually. Not because he's pure evil or anything like that, but simply because he's incompetent. The smartest move the democrats can do, and they seem to be doing it rather well, actually, is to sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. When it's all over, they just stand up, /slowclap the hell out of Trump and say "Now... let's get back to proper politicking, shall we?" while the republicans try to explain this fiasco away.

Granted, I'm just an outsider... but I think my guess is accurate enough in the broad strokes to bet money on something like that happening.

[Dug]

A bunch of crybaby's that can't handle the fact their side didn't win. If they go for impeachment, the Trump supporters will start fighting back. This would probably include Armed Protests. That's where Democrats want to go?

Hah, and they call the left violent! But this is the right wing I remember! At least some of y'all still have the stones to threaten others with guns.

[Sliske]

Cognitive Dissonance : when you think Clinton was so bad because she may have hosted an email server off site, and may have accepted donations indirectly from Saudi a major US ally in the Middle East - all based on the evidence sent to Wikileaks by Russia.

Then you think Trump is all innocent ... when it overtly doing far worse, including holding a top secret meeting in public view at the hotel he owns which the US tax payer is paying him to attend for official business.

It baffles me how people can be so blind to the obvious and so sensitive to the almost invisible.

Trump is far from innocent, they're politicians - they're all shady as fuck. Do you trust a single one?

My issue is the laughable reaction people have to stuff like this. People that just handed their balls to Bernie or Hillary as if they were trustworthy characters, and when they turned out to be corrupt the response wasn't "fuck these corrupt politicians!" no - the regressive left only cares about corruption when it suits them.

It doesn't suit their narrative that Bernie was some rich sell out for Hillary, not the next Ghandi. It doesn't suit them that Hillary is some empty shell, that would arm the 9/11 attackers and sees peoples lives as "a game of chess" - doesn't suit them at all.

What does suit their narrative is that Trump is bad!

So now we care about corruption. Just now, not before - no, not during the email thing, not during the fake news cycles, not during the DNC leaks where hillary cucks bernie, not bernies reaction to it, not the Al Qaeda-hillary stuff, not the bill clinton rape stuff

Just now, just this.

Impeach him if its true, go ahead, but can we please start being objective, not biased?

[Vizardlorde]

At this stage, I'd guess that the recordings wouldn't be released to the public as they may have genuine security implications.

Figure that if an impeachment hearing is held, they would be released to the hearing in private sessions.

Then again - the current administration is holding top secret security meetings at the Trump 'Winter White House' in public view - so who knows.

I can start an MMO champ go fund me to raise 200k for a membership to upload selfies with the prez to gen-OT

[Machismo]

What I'm unsure of is this ... lets assume for a moment that a significant portion of Trump's inner circle is implicated in this, and everyone decides to 'do something' about it.

A normal impeachment won't work, what would happen?

As it stands Pence seems rational and clean (his idiotic politics aside), would he just appoint a new VP? Can he ? The normal processes seem to fall apart if this level of behaviour is true ?

At this point, it's way too early to tell. We don't know exactly whose hands are dirty, and what was actually said. We have a lot of contact with foreign intelligence before an election. It just so happens that it is also the same government that sought to intervene on Trump's behalf. Now, one can chalk that up as an amazing coincidence, but it is very suspicious. It's not a smoking gun, yet, but this information is brand new. Watergate lasted years before things came to a head, this looks like it could be much faster.

[Torgent]

Wrong.You have proof that his intention was to advance their interests? Good luck in court.

I'm pretty sure alexw is not in charge of the investigation. I could be wrong. But those who are in charge might just have access to the recordings which could show a lot more information.

[schwarzkopf]

Does this delegitimize his election? This is crazyyyyy

I don't think the US has any process for a redo, at this stage - Republicans are in charge for the next 4 years. That's not great, but it is not evil or destructive either.

The aim is to remove the administration, not the winning party.... to me that seems like Pence becomes POTUS and finds a VP then basically starts a fresh and does it properly.

- - - Updated - - -

Watergate lasted years before things came to a head, this looks like it could be much faster.

Yeah, but Nixon was just corrupt - not crazy. This has to be resolved much faster, Trump has got 10 or so real loose cannons around him.

Right now - I'm glad for the few Trump picks that (randomly) turned out to be solid decent people.

[Belize]

A bunch of crybaby's that can't handle the fact their side didn't win. If they go for impeachment, the Trump supporters will start fighting back. This would probably include Armed Protests. That's where Democrats want to go?

Haha... what?

[alexw]

Wrong.You have proof that his intention was to advance their interests? Good luck in court.

It doesn't need to be proved to a court standard. Impeachment does not require that.

Plus we already know he has tried to advance Russian interests, as he already tried to remove the sanctions on Russia. The rest of the republican establishment gave him an emphatic no so he stopped trying.