Charles Krauthammer: Trump Jr. emails are evidence of 'collusion'

[Straw Man]

Time for the right wingers on this board to turn on Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer: Trump Jr. emails are evidence of 'collusion'

By Charles Krauthammer Opinion writer July 13 at 7:51 PM

The Russia scandal has entered a new phase, and there’s no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didn’t. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups, like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of coverup, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just don’t see it. But I’m open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that there’s a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a “Russian government attorney” possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a Prosecutor General.)

Donald Jr. emails back. “I love it.” Fatal words.

Once you’ve said “I’m in,” it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were forwarded the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

“It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame,” Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We don’t know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

It’s rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that it’s no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other people’s elections, and they in ours. You don’t have to go back to the ’40s and ’50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administration’s blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections — the very origin of Vladimir Putin’s deep animus toward Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

What’s left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. It’s one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr. — and Kushner and Manafort — did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you don’t need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense — collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election — is now officially dead.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bungled-collusion-is-still-collusion/2017/07/13/68c7f72a-67f3-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.f5b11153d977

[Coach is Back!]

.

[Straw Man]

nice attempt at deflection

funny how your cartoon includes all discredited conspiracy's thoroughly investigated by Repubs (the ones that aren't just made up nonsense)

I assume you've got nothing to say about the actual topic of this thread

You're a fan a Krauthammer...right?

[Thin Lizzy]

"There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr. — and Kushner and Manafort — did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor."


Sorry, pal. Nothing to see here.

[Yamcha]

This will surely be the END of Drumpf!

[Thin Lizzy]

One thing I don't get. If Trump and company had all these high-level connections to the Kremlin, why did they need some music promoter to arrange a meeting with some Russian lawyer?

You'd think Donald could just pick up his bat phone and call Vladimir.

[Straw Man]

"There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr. — and Kushner and Manafort — did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor."


Sorry, pal. Nothing to see here.

LOL

"may" not be criminal   doesn't mean it's not criminal

It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.
I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you don’t need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense — collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election — is now officially dead.

[The Ugly]

Yeah, a couple unsullied brains over there who at least pretend it's a news channel. Shep and Wallace, for instance, which is why Foxtards hate 'em.  

Turns out, "nothingburgers" are made with much less nothing these days, especially the Russian ones.  

[Thin Lizzy]

LOL

"may" not be criminal   doesn't mean it's not criminal

You would think a genius like Krauthammer would've done his homework and would've known if it were criminal or not.

So far I haven't heard a single person say that it was criminal.

This shit is going to end up backfiring as somebody eventually is going to have to explain why this woman was given a special exception on her visa and why she was still in the country well after her visa had expired.

I think more liberals watch Fox than right wing people. I can't remember the last time I even watched the channel.

I see Fox as part of the old media and is still working a dated model. They are no less of a dinosaur than CNN or MSNBC.

[Soul Crusher]

If only I could go back and vote for Hillary . . . .

[Straw Man]

You would think a genius like Krauthammer would've done his homework and would've known if it were criminal or not.

So far I haven't heard a single person say that it was criminal.

This shit is going to end up backfiring as somebody eventually is going to have to explain why this woman was given a special exception on her visa and why she was still in the country well after her visa had expired.

I think more liberals watch Fox than right wing people. I can't remember the last time I even watched the channel.

I see Fox as part of the old media and is still working a dated model. They are no less of a dinosaur than CNN or MSNBC.

great point
this story just broke a few days ago and there may be more to follow

but we really should have drawn a definitive conclusion by now and if not then it must be nothing

[Coach is Back!]

great point
this story just broke a few days ago and there may be more to follow

but we really should have drawn a definitive conclusion by now and if not then it must be nothing

Do you think Killary is innocent of all allegations? Yes or no?

[Mobil]

Impeachment! For the 1000th time from a commie liberal

[Soul Crusher]

great point
this story just broke a few days ago and there may be more to follow

but we really should have drawn a definitive conclusion by now and if not then it must be nothing

Let's bet accounts - does trump get impeached yes or no

[Coach is Back!]

LOL

"may" not be criminal   doesn't mean it's not criminal

It wasn't criminal. There, I fixed it for you. What Clinton, Lynch and Comey was absolutely criminal and the hammer is about to drop because now the libs are fucking with Trumps family.

[Coach is Back!]

"Vladimir Putin could have sat in on that meeting and it wouldn't have been a crime" - Greg Jarrett

He's an attorney, Krauthammer isn't. Hope that helped

[Straw Man]

Do you think Killary is innocent of all allegations? Yes or no?

you mean all the nonsense in your cartoon (most of which were the subject of extensive investigations by Republicans)

Yes

[Straw Man]

"Vladimir Putin could have sat in on that meeting and it wouldn't have been a crime" - Greg Jarrett

He's an attorney, Krauthammer isn't. Hope that helped

Richard Painter is an attorney too and he said this meeting borders on treason

And unlike Greg Jarrett he's not an pill popping alcoholic

[Coach is Back!]

you mean all the nonsense in your cartoon (most of which were the subject of extensive investigations by Republicans)

Yes

Pay attention fucktard or is that all you remember?

[Coach is Back!]

Richard Painter is an attorney too and he said this meeting borders on treason

And unlike Greg Jarrett he's not an pill popping alcoholic

This guy Painter must be a whore for the 9th circuit

[Moontrane]

If only I could go back and vote for Hillary . . . .

On second thought:

[mazrim]

Staggeringly "nothing" story. Americans are supposed to care that more information on Hillary/Democrats moral corruption/illegalities were potentialy gotten? I like knowing all I can about who I vote for. I would have no issue with the other side doing the same if the information was true. Problem is is that the other side lies and makes things up

[Purge_WTF]

 Krauthammer is a Neocon cheerleader, and Trump is in no hurry to continue fighting in or for the Middle East.

[Nether Animal]

If I hear the word "Collusion" again I'm going to scream. I'm sure most of the people parroting this word endlessly don't even know what it means.

[Primemuscle]