What Clapper actually said…


The Unpresident returning from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster.

The Tiny Tyrant was utterly creamed in the Russia hearings, and he has reacted by firing James Comey. As everyone on the planet will note, yes, Comey needed firing, ages ago, but the timing here is rotten all the way through. It seems the Tiny Tyrant’s method of dealing with the landslide of shit is simply going to be firing people. Naturally, Mr. Tweet has appeared once again, with yet another blatant lie, the only thing which seems to reside in our wannabe dictator’s skull. So, a Pants On Fire! check…

President Trump took to Twitter to try and tamp the whole thing down.

But the first of four tweets Trump published about the hearing made a claim that was undermined earlier in the day by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified alongside Yates.

“Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is ‘no evidence’ of collusion w/ Russia and Trump,” the president tweeted.

This, however, is not what Clapper said on Monday.

On March 4, Clapper went on Meet the Press, and was asked by Chuck Todd if he’s aware of evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

“Not to my knowledge,” Clapper replied.

Just over two weeks later, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia. That same day, Trump seized upon Clapper’s Meet the Press remark to try and undercut the notion he’s involved in a scandal.

[…]

On Monday, however, Clapper clarified that his Meet the Press comment wasn’t meant to give people the idea he had direct knowledge of Comey’s investigation and had concluded it hadn’t uncovered evidence of collusion. Instead, he said he just wasn’t aware that Comey was investigating.

From Mother Jones:

At Monday’s hearing, Clapper pulled this rug out from under the White House and its comrades. He noted that it was standard policy for the FBI not to share with him details about ongoing counterintelligence investigations. And he said he had not been aware of the FBI’s investigation of contacts between Trump associates and Russia that FBI director James Comey revealed weeks ago at a House intelligence committee hearing. Consequently, when Clapper told Todd that he was not familiar with any evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, he was speaking accurately. But he essentially told the Senate subcommittee that he was not in a position to know for certain. This piece of spin should now be buried. Trump can no longer hide behind this one Clapper statement.

Instead of reassuring Trump, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said Clapper being kept in the dark about the FBI investigation should worry the president.

There’s much more at Think Progress. It’s important to spread this far and wide, because in spite of everything, Trump is still tweeting that Clapper cleared  him, contrary to all evidence and facts.

*Strikeouts are mine.

Comments

  1. says

    PS -- the idea that anyone is taking anything that Clapper says seriously… that ought to make you feel sick. That perjuring assbag already lied in congressional testimony.

  2. says

    —-Contrarian ramble below———-
    I still say Clapper told the truth on the former statement(He has no real evidence). The direct evidence, if any, will most likely be under heavy security clearance and the case will never be crystal clear due to politics and state-(nonsense)non transparency.
    It’s still much a charade to me honestly, because the greatest element of this is the function it serves is in distraction. I’m not saying this is all a grand plan but the democrats have no strength(Though I don’t have faith in a monopoly-party to begin with, the very structure of dem and repubs are poisonous to representative democracy) and yet their only play is not to have an equivocal stirring of populism to counter right wing populism but instead waste time on a lost cause(Really, only 2 presidents to my knowledge have ever been impeached).
    Anyway, I have no reason to not believe that this Russian mess is an exaggeration or built-upon fabrication.

    By the way, funny enough Harvard Library has classed Think Progress as a “biased” source on their (“fake”) news list. Personally, I find Think Progress to be a mainstream corporate spin but it’s funny that even they are pinned as “unreliable”.

    I believe I have a few clips from certain segments on MSNBC and CBS of guest being invited on in this topic and claiming no evidence. On another topic, you watch out though, a lot of anchors are actually really connected with defense contractors. Also, WaPost, Jeff Bezos’s news project is ironically claims “Democracy dies in darkness”. That’s funny not only considering mainstream media has a bias towards a (private)sponsor-lead agenda, but also that he is involved in defense contracting as well(over half a billion with the CIA).

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