JAMIE DIMON APPROVES OF TRUMP’S BOOMING ECONOMY (MORE JOBS, MORE MILITARY):
U.S. ECONOMY STRONGEST SINCE 2014.
TRUMP’S TRADE WAR YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS FOR U.S. ECONOMY.
TRUMP KNOWS BUSINESS & BLOWS OFF TRADITIONAL, COUNTERPRODUCTIVE POLITICS.
MEDIA NEEDS TO FAIRLY GIVE THE PRESIDENT CREDIT WHEN IT’S DUE HIM, REGARDLESS OF PARTY.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Post Sources: CNN, Fox News, 4-Traders, Youtube
***** US economy grows at fastest pace since 2014
The US economy roared into high gear in the spring, growing at the fastest pace in almost four years.
Second-quarter economic growth came in at an annual rate of 4.1%, the government said Friday. That was the best showing since the third quarter of 2014.
By many metrics, the United States economy is in excellent shape: Unemployment is near an 18-year low, factories are seeing more orders, and exports are surging.
Economists are generally predicting slower growth in the second half of the year, as the effects of the tax cut wear off and rising interest rates depress consumer spending.
Already announced tariffs are forecast to be only a slight drag on economic growth, unless more are imposed. And it seems that corporate executives are treading carefully, as surveys of business confidence and hiring expectations begin to flag.
The strong second-quarter growth reflectedlarge increases in orders of durable goods, investment in non-residential construction, exports, intellectual property, and government defense spending.
Weak home construction and increased imports, which subtract from economic growth, took it down a notch.
Growth in the first quarter was revised up slightly, from 2% to 2.2%.
Personal consumption expenditures, a key metric that the Federal Reserve uses to decide whether to raise interest rates, also came in at a very strong 4%, although that may reflect a bounceback from last quarter's 0.5%.
The White House struggled on Wednesday to contain a political outcry and confusion over U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, denying Trump ever meant to say that Moscow was no longer targeting the United States.
Trump, facing uproar over his failure to confront Putin over Russia’s 2016 U.S. election meddling, adopted his usual defiant posture two days after their Helsinki summit and called his critics deranged.
Asked by a journalist before a morning Cabinet meeting whether Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump looked at the reporter, shook his head and said, “No.”
At a later briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president was saying “no” to answering questions, not to the question itself.
U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia’s efforts to undermine elections are continuing and now target the Nov. 6 congressional races. Sanders said Trump believes the threat from Russia to undermine those elections still exists.
Asked later in an interview with CBS News whether he held Putin personally responsible for meddling in the 2016 election, Trump said he did.
“Well, I would, because he’s in charge of the country. Just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country,” he said.
The U.S. president said that in his talks with Putin, he was “very strong on the fact that we can’t have meddling, we can’t have any of that.” But Trump also appeared to question whether such statements would have an impact on Russia. “We’re also living in a grown-up world,” he said.
Sanders explanation of Trump’s “No” was the second time since Monday’s summit that Trump and the White House have blamed a misstatement or misunderstanding for the furor over Russia.
On Tuesday, Trump said he misspoke at a Helsinki news conference with Putin and that he accepted intelligence agency conclusions about Russian election meddling, although he hedged by deviating from his prepared notes to say “it could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”
Trump stunned the world on Monday by shying away from criticizing the Russian leader for Moscow’s actions to undermine the election, sparking bipartisan fury at home and prompting calls by some U.S. lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.
Critics have accused Trump of siding with Russia over his own country by failing to criticize Moscow for what U.S. intelligence agencies last year described as Russia’s election interference in an attempt to sow discord, aid Trump’s candidacy and disparage Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Putin has denied the allegations.
‘DOING VERY WELL’
“We’re doing very well, probably as well as anybody has ever done with Russia. And there’s been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia,” Trump said before the Cabinet meeting, adding that Putin “understands it and he’s not happy about it.”
In a series of early morning Twitter posts, the Republican president said the summit would eventually produce “big results” and accused his critics of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“Some people HATE the fact that I got along well with President Putin of Russia. They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome!” the president wrote.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a congressional committee in February he already had seen evidence Russia was targeting November’s elections when Republican control of the House of Representatives and Senate is at stake.
In rebutting Trump’s dismissive comments about U.S. intelligence on Monday, Coats said, “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.”
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Trump needed to wake up to Russia’s efforts to interfere in American elections.
“We won’t be able, as a nation, to fight back against foreign interference in our elections if the Commander in Chief doesn’t even acknowledge that it’s a real problem,” Schumer said in a statement.
Republican Senator John McCain accused Trump of “playing right into Putin’s hands” with the president’s comments in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that appeared to question the American commitment to defend all NATO allies.
Asked why Americans should defend NATO member Montenegro from attack, Trump said, “I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. ... They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you are in World War Three.”
Montenegro joined NATO last year in defiance of Moscow after accusing Russian spies of orchestrating an attempted coup to derail the accession.
In his morning tweets, Trump said he elicited a promise from Putin during their meeting to help negotiations with North Korea, but did not say how. Trump met North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in June and has since received a letter from Kim expressing hope for “practical actions” in the future as the United States seeking Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
Russia’s RIA news agency, citing Moscow’s envoy to Pyongyang, reported that a summit between the leaders of Russia and North Korea is “on the agenda” and that it would be “logical” to raise the idea of lifting sanctions.
For nearly two years, Republicans have watched uncomfortably, and often in silence, as President Trump has swatted away accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race, attacked his own intelligence agencies and flattered President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
On Monday, even for members of his own party, Mr. Trump apparently went too far.
The president’s extraordinary news conference with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, stunned Republicans across the ideological spectrum and the party’s political apparatus, leaving them struggling to respond after the president undermined his national intelligence director, blamed both the United States and Russia for poor relations between the two countries and seemingly agreed to Mr. Putin’s suggestion that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, cooperate with Russia.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, declared, “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.” Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and Trump adviser, declared the news conference “the most serious mistake of his presidency.” Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and current Senate candidate from Utah, called it “disgraceful and detrimental to our democratic principles.”
The effect extended far beyond official Washington. One local official — Chris Gagin, the chairman of the Republican Party in Belmont County, Ohio — resigned his post, announcing on Twitter that he “did so as a matter of conscience, and my sense of duty.” Neil Cavuto, a Fox Business Network host, called Mr. Trump’s performance “disgusting,” adding, “I’m sorry, it’s the only way I feel. It’s not a right or left thing to me, it’s just wrong.”
Yet no Republican in Congress pledged any particular action to punish Mr. Trump, such as holding up his nominees or delaying legislation, nor did any Republican promise hearings or increased oversight.
It was left to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to demand actual action. He called for increased sanctions on Russia; for Mr. Trump’s national security team to testify before Congress; for defense of the Department of Justice and other intelligence agencies; and for Mr. Trump to press Mr. Putin to extradite the 12 Russian intelligence agents who were indicted Friday.
“In the entire history of our country, Americans have never seen a president of the United States support an adversary the way President Trump has supported President Putin,” Mr. Schumer said.
He added: “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder. The only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”
Republican leaders largely tempered their remarks, confining their backhanded comments to denunciations of Russia and expressions of faith in American intelligence agencies. But even they appeared to have given up hope that they could shape the actions of an erratic and unpredictable president.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, concluded that Mr. Trump was unable to distinguish between the fact that Russia had interfered in the election and the accusation — as yet unproven — that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia.
“In the president’s mind, I think he’s conflating different things — the meddling and the collusion allegations for which there does not appear to be any evidence,” Mr. Cornyn said.
Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who has defended Mr. Trump amid the Russia inquiry, was not quite as charitable: “I understand in the bigger picture the president genuinely feels that he can establish better relations with Russia the way Nixon did with China,” Mr. King said in an interview, “but the nuance eludes him.”
And as to Mr. Trump’s openness to having Russia cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s investigation, Mr. King said, “It would be like bringing ISIS into a joint terrorism task force.”
At least one Republican, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, veered from the script and delivered a full-throated defense of Mr. Trump: “I think it’s a good idea to have engagement, and I guess I don’t quite understand all of the people who have gone completely deranged criticizing the president.”
Elected Republicans have been uneasy about Mr. Trump’s unorthodox views toward Russia and his willingness to embrace Mr. Putin since Mr. Trump first grabbed the attention of the party as its primary contest heated up in summer 2015. Many thought that once he was in office, surrounded by Washington’s national security experts, Mr. Trump would adopt the wary stance that has guided previous American presidents.
Instead, time and again he has defied those expectations, as he repeatedly called into question the collective conclusions of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies, and ignored his own advisers’ advice in seeking a personal relationship with Mr. Putin.
For most Republicans on Capitol Hill and around the country, Mr. Trump’s stance toward Mr. Putin, coupled with his recent attacks on the United States’ allies in Europe, have presented a challenge: either defend the post-World War II international order, and risk angering a president who is immensely popular with their voters, or hold their tongues.
That challenge is especially tricky for Republican leaders, who must work closely with Mr. Trump and are especially reluctant to criticize him in public.
Hours passed on Monday before Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, commented. During a rare hallway interview in the Capitol, he uttered three terse sentences: “The Russians are not our friends. I’ve said that repeatedly, I say it again today. And I have complete confidence in our intelligence community and the findings that they have announced.” He refused to answer questions.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan was a bit more pointed. “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” he said in a carefully worded statement. “There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.”
Democrats wanted more than carefully calibrated statements.
“This is a disgraceful moment. The president’s party knows better,” John Kerry, the former secretary of state and senator, wrote in a statement. “America needs them to speak out with clarity and conviction not just in this news cycle, but until there’s common sense governing America’s foreign policy.”
Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, suggested on Twitter that if Republicans “were serious,” they would pass a long-stalled legislation protecting the jobs of special counsels such as Mr. Mueller.
But Republican leaders did not appear ready to go beyond measured phrases. Mr. Cornyn told reporters that it was “wishful thinking” to expect Mr. Putin to agree to the extradition of the 12 Russian agents. “Much of what Senator Schumer’s asking for, I think we’ve already done,” he added.
As Republican leaders struggled to come up with tactful ways to respond to a stunning news conference, responses from some of their colleagues signified a moment when Republicans could not defend their president.
Mr. McCain’s was undoubtedly the harshest.
“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout — as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience,” said Mr. McCain, who has brain cancer.
“But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician,” he continued. “These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.”
Mr. McCain’s fellow Republican senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, released his own rebuke: “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican Alaska, struck a mournful tone: “Sadly President Trump did not defend America to the Russian president, and for the world to see. Instead, what I saw today was not ‘America First,’ it was simply a sad diminishment of our great nation.”
Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska and a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, echoed the sentiment. “Everyone in this body should be disgusted by what happened in Helsinki today,” he said Monday in a speech on the Senate floor.
Even for congressional Republicans used to avoiding commenting on the president’s outbursts, Mr. Trump’s performance in Helsinki was difficult to ignore. For those who are accustomed to speaking out against Mr. Trump, and those whose impending retirements have freed them to do so, it was yet another occasion for public hand-wringing.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the retiring chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he “did not think this was a good moment for our country.”
It was, he added, a very good moment for Mr. Putin.
“It was almost an approval, if you will, a public approval by the greatest nation on earth towards him,” Mr. Corker told reporters. “I would guess he’s having caviar right now.”
President Trump's new lawyer has been busy,but is optimistic that legal challenges ranging from Stormy Daniels to the Russia investigation will be resolved in the president's favor.
"I have sort of a special relationship with the president," Giuliani told USA TODAY in a brief interview. "It's going to take some time, but I think we're going to be OK."
Giuliani disputed claims that a $130,000 payment to Daniels, an adult film star who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, amounts to a campaign finance violation.
A day after disclosing that Trump had repaid Cohen for a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement with Daniels — and hours after Trump confirmed it via Twitter — Giuliani said the money had nothing to do with the 2016 campaign, even though the original payment came just days before the election.
"No one ever thought of it as a campaign contribution," Giuliani said. "It was a personnel settlement."
Trump's admission changes the story he gave reporters in April, when he said he knew nothing about the payment to Daniels and suggested they ask Cohen about it.
During a media blitz of recent days, Giuliani said Cohen paid the original amount in October 2016, and Trump did not know about it;
Trump gradually repaid Cohen in installments as part of his lawyer's retainer, but did not what the money was for; only recently did Trump learn that those payments were for Daniels' settlement, said Giuliani and other administration officials.
The former New York City mayor is also negotiating possible Trump testimony before Mueller, though he has said he is not sure that will happen.
The Trump legal team is demanding testimony of no more than two to three hours, with limited topics.
They are concerned that some Mueller prosecutors may want to entrap the president as part of investigations into obstruction of justice and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Giuliani said he's been thrown "a couple of curve balls, but we've been hitting them."
~ Former national security adviser says he is cooperating with special counsel probe
Former national-security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to federal investigators about his calls with the Russian ambassador and other issues and said he is cooperating with prosecutors, a sign that the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election is reaching deeper into President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
In a 45-minute hearing in a Washington federal court, Mr. Flynn admitted he misled Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about a series of calls he had last December with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama Administration and about a United Nations resolution critical of Israel.
Mr. Flynn also acknowledged in court documents filed Friday that he had detailed conversations with Trump transition officials about the calls, and that a “very senior member” of the transition team had directed his contacts over the U.N. issue. A person familiar with the matter said that individual is Jared Kushner, a top White House adviser and the president’s son-in-law.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Kushner, didn’t return requests for comment. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators interviewed Mr. Kushner in recent weeks, focusing their questions exclusively on his interactions with Mr. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors said Friday that Mr. Flynn consulted several times with top Trump transition officials on his contacts with Russia, suggesting Mr. Mueller is closely scrutinizing other prominent Trump associates. But his ultimate targets, and the exact nature of any potential wrongdoing, remain unclear.
Mr. Mueller is six months into a wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election and potential links between those efforts and the Trump campaign. In court documents, Mr. Mueller’s office said Mr. Flynn’s lies to the FBI impeded that investigation.
When asked by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras how he pleads to the charge against him, Mr. Flynn, flanked by his two lawyers, said softly, “Guilty, your honor.”
Given his cooperation, Mr. Flynn is expected to face at most six months in prison, depending on his “substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense,” according to his plea agreement.
Prosecutors didn’t elaborate Friday on who else they may be looking at. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty only to one count of lying to the FBI, but a “statement of the offense” filed in connection with his plea detailed additional wrongdoing, including lying on a regulatory form about his private work directed by Turkish government officials.
Mr. Mueller’s decision not to file more serious charges against Mr. Flynn led many legal experts to infer that Mr. Flynn is providing significant information to the investigation.
“Mueller would not have accepted an agreement to plead to a single charge absent an arrangement of some sort, and presumably that is Flynn’s truthful testimony about other matters within Mueller’s jurisdiction,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor who was a deputy to special counsel Kenneth Starr during his investigation of President Bill Clinton.
In a statement Friday, Mr. Flynn said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.”
He added: “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Mr. Flynn, who was a high-profile campaign surrogate for Mr. Trump but who lasted in his White House post for less than a month, becomes the most senior Trump associate to face criminal charges in the special counsel investigation. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Mr. Flynn led the crowd in chanting “Lock her up!” in reference to Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. On Friday, protesters outside the courthouse chanted as Mr. Flynn left: “Lock him up!”
Documents filed in federal court Friday detail Mr. Flynn’s misstatements to the FBI during an interview last January and depict a group of incoming Trump officials concerned about the Obama administration’s new sanctions on Russia and trying to figure out how to react to them.
Mr. Flynn “falsely stated” to the FBI that he hadn’t asked the Russian ambassador to refrain from escalating a response to the sanctions, a senior prosecutor in Mr. Mueller’s office, Brandon Van Grack, said in court. In fact, Mr. Flynn had called a senior official of the Trump transition team on Dec. 29—the day the sanctions were announced—to discuss “what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador,” according to a statement filed in connection with Mr. Flynn’s plea.
The unnamed senior official was with “other senior members” of the transition team at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s golf club in Florida, the document said. The official and Mr. Flynn discussed the fact that members of the transition team at Mar-a-Lago “did not want Russia to escalate the situation,” the document said.
Among the transition officials who met with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago that day were Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, a Trump spokesman said at the time. Mr. Miller and Ms. Conway are now serving in the White House. Mr. Bannon and Mr. Priebus served as chief strategist and chief of staff, respectively, but were ousted over the summer. Ms. McFarland is Mr. Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Singapore.
“Immediately after his phone call,” Mr. Flynn called Mr. Kislyak and asked that Russia only respond “in a reciprocal manner,” the document said.
The next day, Dec. 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a statement that Russia wouldn’t take retaliatory measures, and Mr. Kislyak called Mr. Flynn on Dec. 31 to tell him Russia had “chosen not to retaliate in response to Flynn’s request.”
After his phone call, according to the document, Mr. Flynn spoke to “senior members” of the transition about his conversations with Mr. Kislyak and about Russia’s decision “not to escalate the situation.”
In addition to the sanctions issue, Mr. Flynn also lied about calls he made to “Russia and several other countries” about a U.N. resolution submitted by Egypt on Dec. 21, which criticized Israel’s construction of settlements in disputed territories.
Mr. Flynn “falsely stated” that he only asked on the calls about the countries’ position on the votes, the document said. In fact, “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team directed Flynn” to contact the officials to “influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution,” the document said.
The document also said Mr. Flynn made “materially false statements” in a regulatory filing about his separate work for Turkish interests, including stating that his company “did not know whether or the extent to which” the Turkish government was behind the project.
Mr. Flynn is the fourth—and most prominent—figure to be publicly charged in Mr. Mueller’s investigation to date. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime associate who also worked with the campaign, Richard Gates, were indicted in October for prior work they did in Ukraine, unrelated to the Trump campaign.
Another adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian go-betweens.
Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Mr. Trump fired in May, has testified that Mr. Trump asked him to back off his investigation of Mr. Flynn, which the president denies.
Prosecutors’ references Friday to Mr. Flynn’s conversations with other Trump transition officials suggest Mr. Mueller is scrutinizing the actions of other high-profile figures in Mr. Trump’s orbit. Mr. Kushner said in a statement to Congress in July that, at Mr. Trump’s request, he served as the main point of contact for foreign countries during the transition.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday’s plea shows that a Trump associate was “negotiating with the Russians against U.S. policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election.”
She added, “It’s critical that we determine whether Flynn spoke with the Russians on his own initiative and who knew and approved of his actions.”
A statement from White House lawyer Ty Cobb played down the guilty plea, noting that Mr. Flynn was in the job less than a month and had “entered a guilty plea to a single count.”
Mr. Flynn’s false statements, Mr. Cobb added, “mirror” similar ones he made to Vice President Mike Pence about his Russian contacts earlier this year, which the White House has said resulted in his resignation. “The conclusion of this phase of the special counsel’s work demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion,” Mr. Cobb said.
U.S. investigators began scrutinizing Mr. Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador after the two spoke in a series of phone calls during the presidential transition in December 2016, according to people familiar with the investigation.
During those calls, Mr. Flynn discussed the potential easing of U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia after the Trump administration came to power in January, current and former officials said at the time, citing transcripts of intercepted communications between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak.
RUSSIA TO OBAMA: PROVE THE KREMLIN INTERFERED IN DEMS' 2016 ELECTION LOSS:
IS OBAMA & KEY DEMS TRYING TO START WORLD WAR 3 (ARMAGEDDON)??
YES......OBAMA WANTS WAR WITH RUSSIA, IRAN, CHINA AND SYRIA.
I THINK YOU KNOW WHY (CALIPHATE).
Sources: CNN, NBC, Fox News, End Times Prophecy News, Jim Beckwith, News Max, YouTube
**** Russia Challenges US to prove campaign hacking claims or shut up
Story highlights:
Dmitry Peskov said US accusations of hacking "look unseemly" without proof
US intelligence agencies have pinned blame on Russia for election-related hacking
The United States must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "indecent" of the United States to "groundlessly" accuse Russia of intervention in the US election campaign, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
"They should either stop talking about that or produce some proof at last. Otherwise it all begins to look unseemly," Peskov reportedly said about the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.
President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed retaliatory action against Russia in the light of allegations that it meddled in the US presidential election campaign.
"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," he told NPR.
What is known about the hacking
• Data and thousands of emails were stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, among other targets.
• US intelligence agencies in October pinned blame on Russia for campaign-related hacking.
• WikiLeaks, which published much of the information obtained by hacking, has refused to reveal its sources.
• The United States has not alleged that Russia interfered with the voting process on Election Day.
'Sophisticated tools'
A US official familiar with the election-related hacking told CNN Thursday that the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, suggesting that Putin was involved.
The source said while Putin's "fingerprints" were not on the hacking, "the nature of the operation was such that this had to be approved by top levels of the Russian government."
Russian cyberhacking activity has continued largely unabated since the election, including against US political organizations, US officials briefed on the investigation told CNN.
US President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the US intelligence community's assessment, in comments Sunday.
He suggested that there was no proof Russia had hacked the election, saying the snooping in Democratic Party servers and emails of Clinton campaign staffers could have been done by China or even someone sitting in New Jersey.
Clinton: Putin grudge was behind hack
Clinton said Thursday night that Putin's alleged involvement in the hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 election stemmed from a longtime grudge the Russian President has held against her.
Meanwhile, her campaign chairman, Podesta, issued a scathing rebuke of the FBI.
He wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that the bureau's "seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election" by comparison with its overzealous investigation of Clinton's emails "shows that something is deeply broken" there.
Russian hacking and the 2016 election, explained
Saakashvili: It's déjà vu
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN Friday that he was not surprised by the US claims against Russia.
"Well I almost was, like, vindicated when the same administration in Washington suddenly started to speak about Russian involvement in the election," he said, speaking in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
"Because we, for me, it's déjà vu. They were the same people telling us, "no, no, it cannot possibly be true." And now it came to their doorsteps. And of course he [Putin] does all those things. Of course he is a great master."
RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS - DEMS' NEW EXCUSE FOR HILLARY'S 2016 LOSS:
IT WASN'T RUSSIA BUT THE NSA & DHS.
HILLARY LOST BECAUSE NOT EVEN THE FEDS TRUST HER.
HILLARY LOST DUE TO BLUE COLLAR WHITE VOTERS & MANY LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED BLACK VOTERS CASTING BALLOTS FOR TRUMP.
Sources: Fox News, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, Youtube
***** Judge Napolitano Says It Was The NSA, Not The Russians Who Hacked DNC
Back in August, Judge Napolitano made some comments regarding the DNC hack.
On his show “Judge Napolitano’s Chambers”, Judge Nap shared his own thoughts on the leaked DNC emails:
The DNC and Clinton campaign decided to blame of all people, the Russians! They accused Vlademir Putin of being in cahoots with Donald Trump and having his intelligence services hack the DNC to expose e-mails to make Mrs. Clinton look bad and thereby benefit Donald Trump. But the Russians had nothing to do with it.
….a former high ranking NSA official who developed a software that the NSA now uses said the NSA hacked the DNC…the members of the intelligence community simply do not want Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States because she doesn’t know how to handle State secrets.
The left has been beating this ‘Russian drum’ for several months now. Russian hacking is one of the many false narratives that the left has been pushing in order to deny President Elect Trump his fully earned legitimacy.
In order to keep the Marxist agenda alive, the left must continue to foment civil unrest and division. The leftists need to get used to the new Republican party because the days of capitulating are over.
-----------------------------------------------
****** REPORT: FBI Director Comey Tells Trump That Russians Didn't Influence the Election
FBI Director James Comey has informed President-elect Donald Trump that there is "no credible evidence that Russia influenced the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election by hacking the Democratic National Committee and the e-mails of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign" according to a report from author and journalist Ed Klein.
Citing sources who were briefed on Comey’s conversations with Trump, Klein reports that Comey said that the only member of the U.S. intelligence community who was ready to assert that the Russians sanctioned the hacking was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan, who "takes his marching orders from President Obama."
"In Comey’s view, the leaks to the New York Times and The Washington Post alleging that the Russians tried—and perhaps even succeeded—in tilting the election to Trump were a Democratic Party effort to delegitimize Trump’s victory," Klein writes.
If Klein's reporting is accurate, this would be a powerful blow to the current left-wing narrative that the Russian government intervened on behalf of the President-elect during the 2016 presidential election
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin found a moment Thursday during a wide-ranging news conference to offer a strong endorsement of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, calling the billionaire presidential candidate the “absolute leader in the presidential race.”
Putin consecrated a budding international bromancebetween the two men as he commented on the U.S. campaign for the White House, saying that Russia would work with “whomever the American voters choose” but expressing special praise for Trump.
Trump said in October that he would “get along very well” with Putin and applauded the Russian leader for his intervention against the Islamic State in Syria. But until Thursday, Trump’s praise had gone unreciprocated.
“He’s a very lively man, talented without doubt,” Putin said when journalists approached him after the news conference and asked about Trump. “He’s saying he wants to go to another level of relations — closer, deeper relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome that.”
It was a moment of levity during a more than three-hour news conference that touched on Russia’s battered economy, Russia’s intervention in Syria, tense relations with Turkey over the downing of a Russian warplane, and the smoldering conflict in Ukraine.
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
My name is Laurel. (Author & Publisher)
I Blog with a focus on POLITICS, Business, and occasionally Entertainment.
FACTS ABOUT LAUREL:
Wife,
Mother of a U.S. Soldier,
Sister,
Woman of GOD,
Loyal Friend,
Creative,
Blood-related to a nationally known Charlotte Politician.
Black Female, Intelligent,
Married,
Love to Travel,
Credentialed by the RNC and DNC.
Political Blogger/ Commentator
Grassroots Activist,
PROFESSIONAL STATUS:
Credential Political Blogger/ Commentator,
Registered Independent Voter
Original Native of BROOKLYN, NY
Currently reside in CHARLOTTE, NC
I’m Nice but don’t get it twisted because my Mind is Sharp!
Since You’ve Chosen to Visit and Read the Contents of this Blog by Personal Choice, and of Your Own Free Will,
Please don’t ask me to Compensate you for Expressing individual commentary/ Posted Articles, which are protected by the First Amendment, citing Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Expression.
No Intentionally Malicious Slander, Libel or Defamation of Character content will be published and I will always Credit all Sources.
NOTE TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS, APPOINTED OFFICIALS & PUBLIC FIGURES:
Per the Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case: 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan………
The Public has a Right to Criticize the People who Govern them, so the least Protection from Defamation is given to Public Officials. When officials are accused of something that involves their behavior in office, they have to prove all of the above elements of defamation and they must also prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice.” (For a definition of actual malice, see the “History of Defamation and the First Amendment, below.”)
People who aren’t Elected but who are Still Public Figures because they are influential or famous — like Actors, Actresses, Movie Stars, Singers & Entertainers, Journalists, TV Hosts, Bloggers, etc., — also have to Prove that Defamatory statements were made with Actual Malice, in most cases.
To the Associated Press and other Media Organizations:
When I use your Content Links., I’m also citing the Fair Use Doctrine (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107) for further Copyright permission.
Posts and Links published on Black Political Buzz are not endorsed by Black Political Buzz Blog Author Laurel’s Employer, nor the Employers of other Black Political Buzz employees.
This includes Links, Posts and Comments posted on Black Political Buzz’s Facebook and Twitter account pages.
Comments, Links and Opinions of site visitors are Independently-Owned and not endorsed by Black Political Buzz employees, Blog Author Laurel or Laurel’s Employer.)
(No Personal Offense intended) Please know that Black Political Buzz is not responsible for nor do I endorse Requests for Donations from Third Parties on this Blog.
I will Only Endorse Requests for Donations made on behalf of BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog for Business Purposes & Operating Expenses.
I will also Only Endorse Requests for Donations on behalf of Legitimate Politicians and Legitimate Political Candidates. PERIOD!!
If anyone else or another Organization wishes to post a link to Request Donations, I am NOT endorsing ANY of those Requests!
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This disclaimer applies to ANY and All requests for Donations on this Blog. Thanks for understanding. Again No Personal Offense intended.
For Story Tips….Corrections…….. or Requests for Endorsements:
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Thanks for stopping by
God Bless
Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
LINKS: POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE & INFORMATIONAL SITES
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