NYT: Trump Asked Comey to End Flynn Investigation

[Virginiá]

twitter must be loving this trump presidency. Lots of extra traffic provided. lol

They could not ask for a better president

[Virginiá]

There's no friggin way Trump will stay on as president for four years.

Obstructing justice is basically a direct result of his personality and with every new development he'll dig himself deeper into a hole.

Let's assume a special prosecutor is appointed or an independent congressional investigation is launched. Trump would do anything to obstruct this as well and he won't care if he breaks the law.

Unless the situation becomes so untenable that they can't hold out (hard to think it isn't already, but ok), I can't see it happening before 2019. If they intend to impeach him and go through the litany of existing abuses and possible crimes on the floor, they won't do it right before a midterm where they could lose massively downballot. Not only would they have to contend with an energized Democratic base and Independent voters flipping en masse, but pissing off Republican Trump supporters might significantly depress their turnout and/or cause a lot of defections, leading to an even bigger wipeout.

That is the only rationale I can think of. Because after all, Pence would take his place, so it doesn't really make sense to keep him around like this unless they are afraid of a backlash.

[Virginiá]

I know it's important for the public to know things as soon as possible, but do you think it is smart tactically to saturate the public daily with a new report? Wouldn't it be wiser to release one, let it fester for a bit for max effect, then release another once all the juice is squeezed out of the other one?

It seems like doing things daily leaves some "juice" unsqueezed. The public has a attention span of about a week on average, and a previous story is likely to be forgotten even more quickly if another story takes its place.

Yes, but the media isn't really playing like that. They all want to break the story first I'm sure. If they were an actual arm of the DNC, and not just one in the context of jokes or snipes from conservatives, than yes that is probably how they would be doing this.

Now that you mention it, I am a little disappointed this is coming out so quickly. Let's do a slow drip well into next year

[Virginiá]

Corey Lewandowski - aka Trump's least scandalous campaign manager - is atm in the WH

and sorry if this is getting old but since it's blowing my mind....

Ironically, as Republicans tried to say all Democrats wanted to do is talk about bathrooms, it is now conservative pundit(s) who only seem to want to talk about dirty bathrooms at penn station when their party's presidency is imploding in the background

[Virginiá]

Horrible if true. But I don’t understand, if true, why Trump is that dumb. He should have known that such a request is illegal and has the potential to throw him out of office. I mean, almost every user on here wouldn’t make such a mistake in the president’s position.

He was expressing the hope. It was not a request (technically). And I doubt that it would be illegal even if he made such a request.

However it is highly improper if the description is correct. Trump is and have been playing with fire while testing the boundaries. So far he has managed to NOT get burned.

What exactly do you think it was? Put aside what it technically says, as in, what a robot might think it was with absolutely no idea of the way people really communicate and the way power dynamics work in situations like this.  You also don't ask everyone to leave the room just to "express hope." Trump was asking Comey to end it, and taking the Breitbart-style approach and dissecting the words individually as if the entire world is stupid, is, well, kind of stupid in itself.

[Virginiá]

Comey&Dems&media would love to find 'collaboration' even if everyone understands... there is only smoke there... Being hack is like being in love

You're calling me a hack when you are sitting here basically denying everything? "Oh, he didn't ask Comey to drop it. It was just HOPE." This is what a child would think, and no, that's not an insult. Superficial interpretation of verbal communication is very much in the realm of child-like behavior.

You're practically drowning in Trump cult kool-aid if this what you're seriously saying. You have an excuse or rationalization for everything he does, no matter how silly. Since you've re-registered on Atlas after your previous ban, you've basically continued your role as Trump justifier and rationalizer, so you're hardly in any place to be calling anyone a hack.

[Virginiá]

Wait, LittleBigPlanet was banned?

Yes, he was banned last year for spam posting and derailing threads on a daily basis.

[Virginiá]

I don't like Putin, but I also don't like the Democrats yelling Russia to deflect from the Wikileaks emails rather than talking about issues that affect ordinary people, stop taking the corrupt fat cat money, and stop being so hawkish.

You think it's all to distract from the email stuff? It's part of a larger midterm strategy to drag down Trump and by extension, the GOP brand. Midterm elections aren't really about each party's policies. They are referendums on the president. Parties need a message but the time for that to dominate are not off-year elections.

[Virginiá]

When Hillary was asked about the e-mails during the debate, she went batsh**t crazy with Russia Russia Russia, and the party followed her off the cliff.

Sure, she was doing what many politicians do. Deflect, spin, whatever. Doesn't change things right now, though. Aside from it being the right thing to do to bring down Trump if he did what he is currently being accused of, bringing down his approval rating and the GOP brand is still part of an effective midterm strategy.