What happens when you have a president who asked for and received help from Russia during his campaign? Will he have any interest in holding the Russians accountable for their actions? Will he lift a finger to prevent the Russians from doing the same types of things again to help his party in the midterms? Will he even worry that the Russians might lose interest in his party and just start trying to get Americans to go for each other’s throats?
These are questions Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) wants answered.
US Cyber Command chief Adm. Mike Rogers told lawmakers on Tuesday that he has not been granted the authority by President Donald Trump to disrupt Russian election hacking operations where they originate.
Asked by Democratic Sen. Jack Reed if he has been directed by the President, through the defense secretary, to confront Russian cyber operators at the source, Rogers said “no I have not” but noted that he has tried to work within the authority he maintains as a commander.
While he did not agree with Reed’s characterization that the US has been “sitting back and waiting,” Rogers admitted that it is fair to say that “we have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors we are seeing” with regards to Russia. “It has not changed the calculus or the behavior on behalf of the Russians,” Rogers said about the US response to Russia’s cyber threat to date.
“They have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior,” he added.
Sen. Reed, who is the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked similar questions to FBI Director Christopher Wray. The leaders of that committee also have privileges to attend meetings of the Intelligence Committee.
Reed, D-Rhode Island, also asked FBI Director Christopher Wray, earlier this month whether the efforts to counter Russia’s election activities in 2018 had been directed by Trump.
“Not as specifically directed by the President,” Wray responded during a hearing at the Senate Intelligence Committee.
We are not deterring the Russians. We aren’t punishing them. Insofar as the intelligence community is working to protect our elections, they’re doing it on their own without any direction from the president. They haven’t received any additional authorities they might need for the fight.
I think they’re probably putting their careers in jeopardy just by acting like the security of our elections is important.
This is just one more piece of evidence of collusion, in case you weren’t already convinced.
Related.
The whole party is going all in on stealing the upcoming elections.
Of course they are. Why walk away from a proven winning strategy when no other is in sight?
They hardly pretend anymore. We are facing a criminal organization. And it will do everything it can to retain power. Or is that overstating it?
They get that.
So they cheat.
Just to be realistic, neither are most Republican Secretaries of State and other Republican election officials.
Insofar as the intelligence community is doing it on its own, it is acting like whistleblowers and the current likelihood is that they will be treated as insubordinate employees are always treated, absent a countervailing branch of government that is shielding them.
Reed is putting the Democratic caucus of the Senate in that countervailing role. Can the Democratic commissars of the party allow Democratic voters the choice of actually returning the Senate to a Democratic majority?
The primary dare of the Trump administration is “Whatyagonnadoaboutit?”
A political surprise would be enjoyable to watch in 2018. Texas, Utah, and Oklahoma would be good places to start.
apparently, Kushner has had his security clearance downgraged to “secret”.
If it can be proven that accessed any SCI documents in the future … easy jail time.
I’ve decided Muellar needs a theme song. I propose this one:
ShakeDown
that’s what I get for trying to do something I’ve not done before (embed)
ShakeDown
Bet.
That’s how I spent my 18th birthday.
You must be young. At least relatively speaking.
This day is setting records for breaking news even the new Trump normal hasn’t seen.
So when Obama left office it had been determined that 7 states had actually had votes hacked…this would have been reported to Trump. He has known all this time, blamed the media for reporting on a hoax and the Dems for a witch hunt.
And to the point of BooMan’s post, he is to this day failing to protect our elections and our country.
You say “it had been determined that 7 states had actually had votes hacked”, but that is not what is being reported by NBC News currently.
What is being reported is that in each of 7 states, computers related to state elections were penetrated, but not that actual vote totals were changed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/u-s-intel-russia-compromised-seven-states-prior-2016-elec
tion-n850296
Penetration vs ejaculation …
either way, we’re fucked.
My only excuse is the sheer volume of breaking news all day, I could have sworn that a guest on Deadline Whitehouse gave me the idea, my bad.
Let’s do it this way:
“What happens when you have a president who asked for and received help from Russia during his campaign?”
If he’s a republican, nothing. At least not as long as republicans control the government. And as long as the opposition party, such as it is, is scared and witless.
“Will he have any interest in holding the Russians accountable for their actions?”
Don’t make me laugh.
“Will he lift a finger to prevent the Russians from doing the same types of things again to help his party in the midterms?”
Hell no!
“Will he even worry that the Russians might lose interest in his party and just start trying to get Americans to go for each other’s throats?”
Trump doesn’t have the capacity to think that far ahead. Besides, if they had Americans at each other throats, that means the throats they should have their hands on, the republicans who are selling this country out, go untouched.
And if these really are the questions Jack Reed wants answered, I wish he and others in the democratic party would stop pussyfooting around, find a set, make it plain and ask these damned questions! You better believe if the shoe were on the other foot, the republicans certainly would. Hell, they get raw with the democrats on the basis of nothing and yet we are saddled with an “opposition party” too damned nice to state the effing obvious!
The whole damned world knows Trump isn’t doing anything about Russia, and neither is the GOP, because they helped them in 2016 and are going to help them even more in 2018! And as our democracy gets trampled, we don’t have any real leaders on the democratic side willing to step up and state that plain fact. And if the democrats aren’t willing to start calling that out, they don’t deserve to win.
Yeah, I’m pissed.
There is, at this moment, a mountain of publicly available, albeit circumstantial evidence of massive collusion at multiple levels, both voluntary and involuntary between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. Mueller has the direct evidence.
When I say multiple levels, I mean Putin’s operatives undoubtedly made it clear that the lucrative money laundering that bailed out Trump’s hopeless organization required a payback. That was the involuntary (blackmail) end.
Then there was the voluntary side. Trump is a man utterly consumed by his many hatreds. He hated Obama above all and he came to hate Hillary very quickly during the early part of his campaign and once it was clear it was going to be him vs. her.
Putin knew, that Trump was going to be his pussycat, of course, because he owned hm and he also knew Trump is both a stupid and weak man. And he also knew HRC was a real hardass and someone he needed to stop if he could.
So there we are. Who else besides the family (esp. Prince Jared and and Dumbass, jr.) and those already indicted are liable? Pence is the classic ‘see no evil, hear no evil” monkey but he is at least liable on l’affaire Flynn.
Ryan? He’s uninterested in palace intrigue because it distracts from his Randian life’s work of ruining the lives of as many ordinary Americans as possible. So that leaves the Keebler Elf AG who almost certainly will be indicted for conspiracy against the US and maybe other stuff. His already awful career will soon end.
“his is just one more piece of evidence of collusion …”
You’re probably trying to be discreet, but I would use a stronger word than “collusion”. As we all know, collusion isn’t a crime.
Replace collusion with “conspiracy to defraud the United States”.
No, that was the tax bill, How about “Treason”?
For some reason this makes me angry, but not in the same way as you.
What the heck does the Orangeutan know about intelligence operations or even foreign policy that his contribution would have any value? I think he’s doing us a favor by not doing anything. On the other hand I’m furious with the “leaders” of the intelligence community continuing their insurrection against the Orange One and thereby endangering the country. If a fvcking Admiral can’t do his job without direction he should be replaced. If he wants or needs specific authority (he already collects and monitors all communication in the entire world) he needs to be clearer about what he wants. My opinion is that whatever he can do, unless it’s an act of war, would not be a cost to Russia.