General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFocus needs to get off Stormy and Avenatti and on to Trump team connection to Russia
The story is that members of the Trump team colluded with Russia to impact the 2016 election. This is a huge scandal that is getting lost amidst the noise of Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti going on every tv show every hour of every day. Trump having an affair, Cohen paying her off, these issues are not the issues of critical importance to the health of this country moving forward.
Rachel Maddow has been doing excellent work outlying all of the very real ties between major figures in the Trump orbit (including Trump himself and his family members) and shady figures in Russia. This corruption should be the heart of the story.
We all want to rid our country of Trump - but the way to do it is by showcasing his connections to Russia - the still unexplained "Russian adoptions" meeting for example is still hanging out there. Please don't let this very serious moment in history turn into wall to wall coverage about porn stars and urinating prostitutes. Disturbing as that all may be - that is not the story that matters.
The story that matters is that Russia worked with members of Team Trump to illegally influence our presidential election.
Demsrule86
(68,595 posts)about Cohens visit to Prague. MSNBC had the author on last night. It was wall to wall coverage of the Comey interviews where he opined that he could not say that Trump has not been compromised by the Russians, all sorts of interesting aspects of the Russian story were covered last night. Any sort of story that drives Trump this crazy is good...more women have come forward too...and Sean Hannity...hahaha.
HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)Sex sells... whether it is cars or news shows.
Sancho
(9,070 posts)for that I'm grateful to Stormy and Avenatti.
Maybe Muller knew about Cohen's trip to Prague and other acts of collusion, but needed proof that was admissible (not just a British dossier). Using the NDA scandal - he raids Cohen's office.
Honestly, is there any doubt that tRump and family have been money laundering and evading taxes for decades? If Muller thinks it's impossible to indict a President, and unlikely to get Congress to act - then the best bet is to take down the entire organization one person at a time until there's nothing left. That seems to be the case.
The thing that most intrigues me is the involvement of other GOPers with the contributions, Russians, and hacked elections.
PJMcK
(22,037 posts)I think that the Stormy Daniels story is a smoke-screen to cover the real issues that Mr. Mueller and the SDNY are investigating. It just doesn't seem that important, in the larger world, whether Trump had sex with some women. Even the relatively modest amounts of money paid to Ms. Daniels and Karen McDougal seem measly compared to the larger issues involved.
The fact that Mr. Mueller went to Acting AG Rosenstein, then the U.S. Attorney in NY, then to a magistrate judge to get the warrants authorizing the raids on Cohen seems too important to hang on a couple of sex workers' payoffs. Those just don't seem to me to be issues worthy of the awesome power being welded by the Federal prosecutors.
My point is that the evidence that was presented to the magistrate judge must have been overwhelming and powerful in order for the judge to authorize the searches and seizures. Porn actresses, models and infidelity don't seem to rise to the level of seriousness that the broader Trump story implies.
The more bad stories the better. Remember "Clinton fatigue" during the 90s? This is creating Trump fatigue.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)I cant imagine why we would be calling to not use all that is available to us. You think illegal campaign contributions during a Presidential election to cover an affair should not be discussed? The unraveling of the Republicans is getting you to be a bit more transparent than normal. Pull back the reigns. Lol.
mackdaddy
(1,527 posts)Getting stuck on the sex itself is missing the big picture. The political payoffs of hush money during a campaign and trying to hid the fact is a criminal act.
This also makes all of the lying to banks, and transferring the money and the planning of the transfers into crimes. Conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud to name a few.
These blatant crimes have opened the door to Cohen inner working of his "fixing" business that just the Russia mess on its own may not have been able to do. But now the lid is off this can of worms and the investigators can see everything, including the Russia stuff Cohen was doing.
And it is separated enough that this can't be shut down if Muller is fired.
jrthin
(4,836 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)What if they discover Dennison instructed Cohen to sic goons to terrorize Stormy and his other accusers ?