Did Trump just admit that Russia interfered in the election?

[primalmatter]

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

[Celista]

These two posts in conjunction are really, really funny.

You'll never hear me say that Dems are blameless for anything, but you have to admit that Trump does not take the blame for anything.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

It would be great. Trump's tweet has become a ground of some of the wildest fictitious theories one could dream of.

Sometimes when I need some inspiration for stories, I just go check his tweets' comments. I'm usually set for days!

[Nadiru]

You'll never hear me say that Dems are blameless for anything, but you have to admit that Trump does not take the blame for anything.

Obama was blaming George W. Bush for the issues that defined his administration as late as six months ago. That you make excuses for one of the guys who doesn't take blame for things and not for the other is...well, it's really funny to me.

[Celista]

Obama was blaming George W. Bush for the issues that defined his administration as late as six months ago. That you make excuses for one of the guys who doesn't take blame for things and not for the other is...well, it's really funny to me.

I don't need to go through the list of things wrong with each president when criticizing one of them. I'd be here all day if I did that.

[Nadiru]

I don't need to go through the list of things wrong with each president when criticizing one of them. I'd be here all day if I did that.

If you think Obama's done something wrong, why make excuses for his failure? I'm certainly not going to call you a racist if you think Obama's administration was unsatisfying, though many people would precisely because people feel the need to excuse Obama.

[JQuill]

What in gods name are you talking about 4 post troll account? I've never called it fake news once.

Guess what! We can both despise Trump AND Obama for different reasons!

And I never claimed you did, I was referring to Trump often calling it fake news but suddenly citing it as a means to attack Obama. I suppose I certainly could have been clearer in the direction of that question, my mistake.

Also, maybe lay off the "LOL only 4 posts must be a troll" accusations. Because guess what else? Everyone at some point had just 4 posts (including you), we all have to start somewhere.

[Celista]

If you think Obama's done something wrong, why make excuses for his failure? I'm certainly not going to call you a racist if you think Obama's administration was unsatisfying, though many people would precisely because people feel the need to excuse Obama.

When did I make excuses? I really think Republicans were obstructionist. Dems could also be considered obstructionist regarding repeal of the ACA, but then again a lot of concessions were made with the ACA and the proposed senate bill does not seem to be reaching across the aisle very much. If Republicans are unable to pass a revised health care bill due to Democrats then I think obstructionist would be the appropriate term. Even if I think the senate bill is garbage and should be obstructed...

I think Obama could have done better, we are in a very caustic environment politically in the US now and even accounting for the drama on the right, he did not exactly live up to his "hope and change" rhetoric. He basically borrowed that playbook from Blagojevitch (and then Trump borrowed it from Obama). I was in Illinois for undergrad at the time and it is clear where his campaign approach came from.

[Breccia]

Trump's known about election meddling by Russia for months. Did nothing about it. WHY?

Oh, it's worse.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elec...ection-n776116

Trump White House Has Taken Little Action To Stop Next Election Hack

The Trump administration has taken little meaningful action to prevent Russian hacking, leaking and disruption in the next national election in 2018, despite warnings from intelligence officials that it will happen again, officials and experts told NBC News.

"This attack is really the political equivalent of 9/11 — it is deadly, deadly serious," said Michael Vickers, a career intelligence official who was the Pentagon's top intelligence official in the Obama administration. "The Russians will definitely be back, given the success they had…I don't see much evidence of a response."

According to recent Congressional testimony, Trump has shown no interest in the question of how to prevent future election interference by Russia or another foreign power. Former FBI Director James Comey told senators that Trump never asked him about how to stop a future Russian election cyber attack, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who sits on the National Security Council, testified that he has not received a classified briefing on Russian election interference.

Dozens of state officials told NBC News they have received little direction from Washington about election security.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said this week he had never addressed the matter with Trump. [EDITOR'S NOTE: HAHAHAHAHA]

That apparent top-level indifference, coupled with a failure to fill key jobs at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, has resulted in a government paralyzed by inaction when it comes to protecting the next election, experts and government officials told NBC News.

"The Trump administration is woefully missing in action," said Gregory Miller, co-founder of the Silicon Valley based Open Source Election Technology Institute, a non-profit research group.

"It isn't happening," said David Jefferson, a voter security expert and computer scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, when asked whether he saw a U.S. government effort to address the problem.

"Many states are very leery or afraid of federal regulation of their election system, even though they are not prepared to defend against the new generation of threats."

The White House disputes the idea that it hasn't taken action to protect election systems. One White House official said the U.S. is responding in a variety of ways, "some you'll see, some you won't see…You certainly don't want to telegraph your moves."

The White House says it's sending letters to states and municipalities next week asking them to send data to an election fraud commission. It also points to the signing of a cybersecurity executive order as a step toward protecting elections.

Trump, in an interview Friday on "Fox & Friends," didn’t say what he would do to stop Russian hacking, but he did blame the 2016 hacks on the Obama administration.

"Well I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it,” Trump said.”But nobody wants to talk about that. The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before they even — before the election. And I hardly see it. It's an amazing thing. To me — in other words, the question is, if he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it."

The Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election involved at least three tiers: The promotion of false stories through social media; the hacking and leaking of embarrassing material from political campaigns; and the cyber intrusions into state voter registration and election databases that could have — but didn't — cause major disruptions at polling places around the country.

Each of those three attack vectors requires different defenses, experts say. On the fake news front, the government would need to coordinate with tech companies to slow the flow of false information. In terms of Russian intelligence hacking and leaking, experts say Vladimir Putin needs to be shown that he will incur a high cost if that tactic is repeated. And state election systems need to be better armored against cyber attack, and fully equipped to audit the vote if a successful attack occurs.

Little progress has been made in fully achieving any of those steps, experts say.

...

Even the best election cyber defenses can't defend against human error, however — the kind that happens when a government employee clicks on a malicious link in a spearphishing email. That happened in at least two state election systems in 2016, officials say, amid at least 21 Russian hack attempts.

For that reason, U.S. intelligence officials say, it has to be made clear to the Russians or any other nation that there is a price to be paid for hacking an American election.

So far, beyond some modest sanctions implemented in the waning days of the Obama administration, so such message has been sent, experts say.

John McLaughlin, a former acting CIA director, said he had seen no indication that President Trump and his team have "weighed in with Russians or made clear to the Russians our determination to stop this."

Vickers, who led key operations against the Soviet Union, added, "You've got to restore some measure of deterrence. You hit 'em back, punish 'em in some ways, which I don't think has been done by the last administration or this one. They are kind of on the offense, and we're not pushing back."

- - - Updated - - -

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

That Russia has directly interfered with the 2016 presidential election is not a conspiracy theory. That happened. Trump admitted it.

That Trump just tweeted about it is not a conspiracy theory. That happened. Trump tweeted it.

That Trump's team and Russia colluded to do this is not a conspiracy theory. There is a federal investigation into exactly this. That's not a conspiracy theory, at least, not in the common vernacular. Yes, it's a theory about a conspiracy, but it's typically held that a "conspiracy theory" will "produce hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of history or simple facts" as per Wikipedia. There was enough understanding and facts to launch a federal investigation with an independent special counsel. That's not baseless conjecture. It may or may not have happened -- okay we know there was a lot of contact and a bunch of Trump's team had to resign, get fired, or recuse themselves, so "did not happen" might be a stretch. But to imply that it's a baseless, no-evidence crackpot fantasy is just objectively false.

[Blur4stuff]

It's amazing that virtually every intelligence agency on the planet, the previous administration and the current administration (this includes Trump) admits Russia interfered in more than one way, yet Trump supporters keep pretending it's fake.

I feel like i'm listening to scientologists.

[Belize]

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

I wholeheartedly agree, then you could keep all your drivel there!

[Eggroll]

Except Obama knew and he actually DID do something about it, according to this report from MSNBC relating to an article of the Washington Post, published yesterday.

[Draco-Onis]

It's amazing that virtually every intelligence agency on the planet, the previous administration and the current administration (this includes Trump) admits Russia interfered in more than one way, yet Trump supporters keep pretending it's fake.

I feel like i'm listening to scientologists.

Nah scientologists are far more reasonable than Trump supporters, the guy lies in the same sentence and they still cheer for him.

[Garnier Fructis]

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

Why is Trump blaming Obama, then? Why blame Obama for not doing anything about it if it's just a conspiracy theory and not real?

[PACOX]

Except Obama knew and he actually DID do something about it, according to this report from MSNBC relating to an article of the Washington Post, published yesterday.

If public knowledge (and old knowledge) that the US was actively engaged in cyber warfare with the US.

Comey testified about it. Many warned about it. There were stories during the election about it.

The reason Obama didn't say anything was to keep people from losing faith in the process

That fact that it took so long for Donnie to admit it is telling, considering that anyone else in position would have least been asking questions instead being in straight up denial. It also shows how much the intelligence agencies don't trust him or if he just straight up ignored them. Actually I would be that they tried to brief him and he denied all meddling (cause that further fraction his ego about an election he won without the popular vote).

[Mormolyce]

He's also the man who's currently being investigated for firing Comey by the guy who told him to fire him! And also, he's not under investigation and nobody told him to fire him.

[Thepersona]

Does it matter? Even if Russia did interfere, the way I see it is: Crooked Hillary was such an awful, awful candidate that even Russia, a communist country, didn't want her to be elected.

Ha... look this is the new line espoused by the deplorable army... its like a fucking clockwork, totally predictable

[Traveler Voltin]

Since insults are apparently allowed now. I guess i will do some soon.

[Felya]

Can't we just have a mega thread for the conspiracy theories?

Is Russian meddling, which has been confirmed by all intelligence agencies a conspiracy, or the idea that everyone is making this up to conspire against Trump? I'm confused who is actually promoting conspiracy here.

[Blue Minuteman]

45 finally realized that his cult will agree with anything he says, even if he contradicts himself within two sentences. Plus he just pays for crowds at his speeches to make a rhetorical show out of it, and they could care less and will cheer for anything since they are getting paid.