They All Try To Gain An Advantage

May 26, 2018 at 4:19 a.m.


I don’t know if Donald Trump’s campaign people – or Donald Trump himself, for that matter – colluded with the Russians.

I wouldn’t be shocked if they did. At the same time, I wonder: If he and his people did illegally collaborate or connive with the Russians, how have they been able to so far elude all the probing of government and media sleuths for the last two years?

No disrespect intended, but they don’t seem like the deepest thinkers.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough when Special Counsel Robert Mueller finishes his investigation. Not sure when that will be, but hopefully it won’t drag on for too many more years.

But how about some of the stuff on the other side of the coin we’ve been hearing about lately? That’s a little unsettling, isn’t it?

Remember this series of tweets from March 2017?

@realDonaldTrump

 Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

7:35 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

7:49 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

 I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

7:52 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

8:02 AM - Mar 4, 2017

Of course Trump was roundly and universally criticized as being unhinged.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called the tweets a "spectacularly reckless allegation."

He also said, "If there is something bad or sick going on, it is the willingness of the nation's chief executive to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them."

[[In-content Ad]]



Well, now we know the following, based on numerous reports from news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN:

• Secret surveillance was conducted on at least seven Trump people, including  chief strategist Steve Bannon, lawyer Michael Cohen, national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn; adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort; and campaign foreign-policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

• The FBI sought a secret warrant in June 2016 to monitor Manafort, Page, Papadopoulos and Flynn. That’s six months before Flynn had the conversation with Russia’s ambassador Sergei Kislyak that got him in hot water

• The FBI sought four times to wiretap Page after he became a Trump campaign adviser starting in July 2016. Page’s office is connected to Trump Tower and he reports having spent “many hours in Trump Tower.”

• Manafort was wiretapped before and after the election “including during a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Trump.” Manafort reportedly has a residence in Trump Tower.

• Electronic surveillance was used to listen in on three Trump transition officials in Trump Tower — Flynn, Bannon and Kushner — as they met in an official capacity with the United Arab Emirates’ crown prince.

•The FBI also wiretapped Flynn’s phone conversation with Kislyak on Dec. 31, 2016, as part of “routine surveillance” of Kislyak.

• NBC recently reported that Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, was wiretapped, but later corrected the story, saying Cohen was the subject of a “pen register” used to monitor phone numbers and, possibly, internet communications.

(Hat tip to Emmy-award winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who compiled this list in a piece for TheHill.com.)

So when Trump, way back in March 2017, said “Obama had my wires tapped,” he was closer to being right than being wrong.

Those who hate Donald Trump fully support this  stuff. They say it was all done for good reason. Those were bad people who deserved to be wiretapped because they were doing bad things. It wasn’t meant to help Hillary. There was nothing political about it.

Those who love Donald Trump are enraged by this behavior and claim it is all part of a “Deep State” conspiracy to delegitimize a U.S. president before, during and after the election.

But here’s the thing.

I said earlier I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump colluded with the Russians. Why?

Because he and his people wanted to win. They would use every little bit of info they could get their hands on if they felt like it would help their cause.

Does anybody think the folks on the other side wouldn’t do precisely the same thing?

Pretty much everybody in Washington and the media expected Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential election and they desperately wanted her to win.

And both campaigns were doing everything they could to win.

Trump’s son talked to some Russian attorney in Trump Tower because he thought she might have dirt on Hillary.

The Democrats hired a former British agent to cozy up with Russians to dig up dirt on Trump.

But what if – gasp – Trump actually won? What then?

Well, a good play – or “insurance policy” as one of the FBI guys framed it – would be to claim Russian collusion. Best to get that probe going under the radar before the election and then let it play out in public after the election.

I sometimes wish we could live in a parallel universe for a day or so – one where Hillary Clinton was elected president. I would bet a paycheck the Russian collusion investigation would have poofed into non-existence the day after the election.

We don’t yet know what Trump and his people did or didn’t do.

But I know this:

People who think there’s no way the Trump campaign would have taken info from the Russians to help get him elected are naive.

Equally naive are people who believe the Obama administration was above spying on the Trump campaign for political purposes.



I don’t know if Donald Trump’s campaign people – or Donald Trump himself, for that matter – colluded with the Russians.

I wouldn’t be shocked if they did. At the same time, I wonder: If he and his people did illegally collaborate or connive with the Russians, how have they been able to so far elude all the probing of government and media sleuths for the last two years?

No disrespect intended, but they don’t seem like the deepest thinkers.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough when Special Counsel Robert Mueller finishes his investigation. Not sure when that will be, but hopefully it won’t drag on for too many more years.

But how about some of the stuff on the other side of the coin we’ve been hearing about lately? That’s a little unsettling, isn’t it?

Remember this series of tweets from March 2017?

@realDonaldTrump

 Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

7:35 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

7:49 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

 I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

7:52 AM - Mar 4, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

8:02 AM - Mar 4, 2017

Of course Trump was roundly and universally criticized as being unhinged.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called the tweets a "spectacularly reckless allegation."

He also said, "If there is something bad or sick going on, it is the willingness of the nation's chief executive to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them."

[[In-content Ad]]



Well, now we know the following, based on numerous reports from news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN:

• Secret surveillance was conducted on at least seven Trump people, including  chief strategist Steve Bannon, lawyer Michael Cohen, national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn; adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort; and campaign foreign-policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

• The FBI sought a secret warrant in June 2016 to monitor Manafort, Page, Papadopoulos and Flynn. That’s six months before Flynn had the conversation with Russia’s ambassador Sergei Kislyak that got him in hot water

• The FBI sought four times to wiretap Page after he became a Trump campaign adviser starting in July 2016. Page’s office is connected to Trump Tower and he reports having spent “many hours in Trump Tower.”

• Manafort was wiretapped before and after the election “including during a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Trump.” Manafort reportedly has a residence in Trump Tower.

• Electronic surveillance was used to listen in on three Trump transition officials in Trump Tower — Flynn, Bannon and Kushner — as they met in an official capacity with the United Arab Emirates’ crown prince.

•The FBI also wiretapped Flynn’s phone conversation with Kislyak on Dec. 31, 2016, as part of “routine surveillance” of Kislyak.

• NBC recently reported that Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, was wiretapped, but later corrected the story, saying Cohen was the subject of a “pen register” used to monitor phone numbers and, possibly, internet communications.

(Hat tip to Emmy-award winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who compiled this list in a piece for TheHill.com.)

So when Trump, way back in March 2017, said “Obama had my wires tapped,” he was closer to being right than being wrong.

Those who hate Donald Trump fully support this  stuff. They say it was all done for good reason. Those were bad people who deserved to be wiretapped because they were doing bad things. It wasn’t meant to help Hillary. There was nothing political about it.

Those who love Donald Trump are enraged by this behavior and claim it is all part of a “Deep State” conspiracy to delegitimize a U.S. president before, during and after the election.

But here’s the thing.

I said earlier I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump colluded with the Russians. Why?

Because he and his people wanted to win. They would use every little bit of info they could get their hands on if they felt like it would help their cause.

Does anybody think the folks on the other side wouldn’t do precisely the same thing?

Pretty much everybody in Washington and the media expected Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential election and they desperately wanted her to win.

And both campaigns were doing everything they could to win.

Trump’s son talked to some Russian attorney in Trump Tower because he thought she might have dirt on Hillary.

The Democrats hired a former British agent to cozy up with Russians to dig up dirt on Trump.

But what if – gasp – Trump actually won? What then?

Well, a good play – or “insurance policy” as one of the FBI guys framed it – would be to claim Russian collusion. Best to get that probe going under the radar before the election and then let it play out in public after the election.

I sometimes wish we could live in a parallel universe for a day or so – one where Hillary Clinton was elected president. I would bet a paycheck the Russian collusion investigation would have poofed into non-existence the day after the election.

We don’t yet know what Trump and his people did or didn’t do.

But I know this:

People who think there’s no way the Trump campaign would have taken info from the Russians to help get him elected are naive.

Equally naive are people who believe the Obama administration was above spying on the Trump campaign for political purposes.



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