Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive book

[kentuck]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff

<snip>

* Former White House strategist quoted in Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff
* Bannon: ‘They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.
Trump-Russia investigation: the key questions answered
Read more

Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, reportedly based on more than 200 interviews with the president, his inner circle and players in and around the administration, is one of the most eagerly awaited political books of the year. In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump’s closest allies expressing contempt for him.


....more at link

[Norbert10]

1. Holy popcorn batman

[Cryptoad]

14. Welcome to DU,,,,,Comrade!

[niyad]

38. welcome to du

[Frustratedlady]

2. How/why do you track down an egg? eom

[SergeStorms]

50. I didn't see....

anything in the article about "tracking' down any eggs. They're going to CRACK Don Jr. like an egg, but as for the tracking?

Maybe I missed something.

[demmiblue]

3. Oh my!

[Tanuki]

9. Awwwwww....

[sueh]

48. I ditto that!

[StarryNite]

55. Precious!

[onecent]

56. These puppies are ADORABLE!!!!!

[dchill]

4. When does he talk to Mueller?

[Pobeka]

18. When *did* he talk to Mueller?

Bannon's back is likely against the wall too. Now this book giving credence to Mueller's investigation.

[kentuck]

5. Another interesting quote ...

<snip>
“You realise where this is going,” he is quoted as saying. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”

Last month it was reported that federal prosecutors had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, the German financial institution that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner property empire. Bannon continues: “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner shit. The Kushner shit is greasy. They’re going to go right through that. They’re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.”

Scorning apparent White House insouciance, Bannon reaches for a hurricane metaphor: “They’re sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five.”

[NewJeffCT]

21. These admissions are absolutely stunning

coming from Bannon. I guess he really does hate Jared.

[SweetieD]

33. He is still making it seem as if Trump is innocent. You can't flip on someone if they didn't do

Anything wrong. Yet Bannon doesn't talk about Trump's wrongdoings or his own.

[Hoyt]

6. Oh, how much I'd like to see that little pissant behind bars.

[malaise]

7. Just saw your OP

Rec

[kentuck]

8. It's a big story.

I will rec yours!

[malaise]

10. I self-deleted

Will push yours - this is HUGE!!!

[kentuck]

12. It's worthy of a double post.

[mountain grammy]

19. Absolutely!

[calimary]

42. You can say that again!

As Charles Osgood once joked - "the fit has hit the shan!"

[JHan]

43. the tea is good too.... Trump vs Bannon. oh man.

[malaise]

44. Indeed

Too good!

[C_U_L8R]

11. Of course, Bannon's a self-serving megalomaniac

This is a surprise?? Trump deserves all the blowback and then some.

[delisen]

13. What a cast of characters. n/t

[dalton99a]

15. Kick

[MaryMagdaline]

16. bannon hates Kurshner more than he hates America

[NewJeffCT]

22. that is a bigly hatred then

the biggest

[mountain grammy]

17. Go on...

[nycbos]

20. Invest in popcorn.

[malaise]

23. I've switched

Popcorn with butter is way too fattening and we're eating it non-stop these days.

[hedda_foil]

28. Those pistachios look just like the photo of my gallbladder post surgery.

I'd post it but I don't want to creep you out that much.

[malaise]

45. Hehehehehehehe

Love pishtachios

[hedda_foil]

47. I always did too, but since the gallbladder surgery I look at them differently somehow.

[Orsino]

24. The "chief strategist"/coffee boy is releasing chaff...

...by pretending not to know of these meetings.

[peggysue2]

25. The Javanka hatred is . . .

strong with Bannon. Even in the Vanity Fair piece, the disdain for the Kushner's was dripping off the page.

What surprised me were the words 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic' in regards to the Trump Tower meeting. This doesn't sound like the ole Burn It All Down Bannon. Which makes me think he's covering his own ass while throwing the Trumpsters to the wolves.

They're going to crack Don Jr like an egg on national TV?

Wow. Presumably, the Trumpster still talks to Bannon a couple times a week. That statement should be a conversation starter. LOL

These people are positively nuts. And vile, all of them.

[kentuck]

26. Jared must have been instrumental in kicking him off the National Security briefings??

or he could have been sitting at that table with those Russians...

[RandomAccess]

37. IIRC they just always didn't get along

I think Bannon hated Jared's "in" with Trump, and Jared just didn't like Bannon or his attempts to muscle in.

[YessirAtsaFact]

27. This is so freaking bizarre

I actually agree with Steve Bannon on something!

[mr_lebowski]

29. Setting up Don Jr and Jared to take the fall ... making it look like it was all them

To save Hair Drumpfs ass, and quite possibly his own ties via Cambridge to the scheme.

Betcha that's what this is about. And Drumpf probably signed off on it, planning to continue just undermine Mueller's/FBI's integrity every step of the way, and then worse-case, finish by pardoning them two, cause he can and after all was just a 'witch-hunt' by the 'deep state'.

Hell for all we know for SURE, it was their deal and Dotard didn't know, kept out the loop for the simple reason of plausible deniability (and cause they knew he can't keep his mouth shut about jack shit). Though I somewhat doubt it, being the control freak he is they might not have dared.

[kentuck]

31. He's a control freak...

He has to know everything. Especially if it might incriminate him...

I think the author may have caught Bannon at just the right time? Maybe after he was just fired or after he was dismissed from the National Security Advisers group?

It may have been the perfect timing to get him to talk?

[blue-wave]

30. K&R

[matt819]

32. So the problem is really not that it was treasonous

It was that it was stupid. Bannon said he would have had their lawyers meet in done out of the way place and then leak the treasonous info to Breitbart or, and I love this, some more legitimate media outlet.

[BannonsLiver]

34. I wonder what his angle is.

Nothing this man says should ever be taken at face value.

[kentuck]

35. I think he is a lot like Trump...

He shoots from the lip.

Today, he may be sorry that he said those words?

[hvn_nbr_2]

41. My take on his angle

Basically, it's self-preservation. He knows the jig is up, and he wants to preserve his position as a bigwig in the alt-right, after the fall of Humpty Dumbass's crime family.

We've seen several times now that Dotart, Faux Nooze, complicit CongressComrades, and the WingnutFeverDreams.com complex start raging shortly before big announcements. They seem to know in advance; I'd guess there's a sympathetic FBI agent who feeds some info about the progress of the investigation to them, although it's becoming so obvious that you don't even need need inside info. It's soon going to be obvious to everyone that Mueller has the goods on a vast treasonous conspiracy. It wouldn't surprise me if Bannon himself has given Mueller some info on Jared and/or Donnie Jr. Now he thinks that when the crime family (and everybody who is loyal to the end) goes down hard, he (Bannon) will be left as the leader of the right wing. It's probably a delusional plan, but the right wing does delusional pretty regularly.

[gratuitous]

36. Gloriosky!

Bannon's tune has certainly changed now that he's got a book to hawk.

[Gothmog]

39. Yes this is treason

[dlk]

40. Ordinarily I Don't Agree With Bannon, But Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day

[calimary]

46. This is a Thing of Beauty!

GREAT beauty! It's the gift that's certainly gonna keep on giving, reverberating through 2018. Wonder if Bannon's turned? Wouldn't surprise me. His interest is protecting his own ass. There is no honor among these thieves.

[Shoonra]

49. Lots of things but not treasonous

The meeting between Donald Jr and the Russians may have been ill-advised, may have been criminal under federal election laws, or finance laws, or even espionage laws, but it was not treason. This is because it did not meet the criteria for treason spelled out in the US Constitution; treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution and since it is defined there, no subsequent legislation could enlarge upon the definition.

[thbobby]

51. The rats

Are starting their cannibalism. What a reality show! Bigly great. And the ratings!

[nightwing1240]

52. Bannon just lit the fuse

Though I despise that man, it should be just a matter of time before the dumbass in chief is removed from office and the drumpf crime family is safely locked away behind bars, where they all belong! The time is now to start hammering away at your repug senator or congressman to stand up and do the right thing, remove this shit stain from our White House

[bobGandolf]

53. There is something fishy.

Maybe it is because any comments I have seen from Trump cronies...see Bannon...has been a lie. It makes me think the whole “treasonous” comments from Bannon are more than pumping book sales.

[UCmeNdc]

54. DUers were right!

[duforsure]

57. Is trump reacting this way because

He knew when Bannon called it treasonous, he knew it was true, and why he's doing everything he can to distract and redirect attention away from what he said about Jr, Jared, and Manifort going to the meeting. Now its look here?

[yuiyoshida]

58. KrrrrracBOOOMMMM!