GOP Rep. Dave Brat: We've Gotten 'A Little Hysterical' About Russia

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo




By NICOLE LAFOND Published JULY 14, 2017 1:07 PM

A Republican congressman said Friday that Democrats are taking Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer a little too seriously.

“I’m an economist, not a lawyer, but what you got to do is just name the statute that’s been violated. We’re a nation under laws, not under men,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) said in an appearance on CNN. “So if there’s proof that a statute’s been violated, then there is an issue. If there’s not, I think a couple of issues have gotten conflated.”

In June 2016, Trump Jr. — along with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort — met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya amid promises that she would provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump’s presidential campaign. On Friday, a former Soviet counterintelligence officer confirmed to the Associated Press that he was also at the meeting.

Brat said he doesn’t think any of his Republican or Democratic colleagues are denying that Russia was “messing around in our election,” but he said the main problem is that Democrats are “upset President Trump won the election.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dave-brat-we-gotten-a-little-hysterical-about-russia

[FM123]

1. He's on MSNBC with Craig right now ranting "everyone colludes" Hillary is the real scandal!

[FrodosNewPet]

28. Does that mean -HE- colluded?

Perhaps Rep. Brat should be investigated as well.

[Shell_Seas]

2. But what about all of the rest of the stuff?

Coincidence #576

Maybe Dave Brat is on Putin's payroll, too?

We are at war!!

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Brat has declared himself loyal to Russia, not America.

[Shell_Seas]

13. I think, so. Yep.

[gademocrat7]

4. Another lying rethug.

Party over country man.

[Le Gaucher]

5. this from the motherfuckers who went apeshit over made up nonsense aka benghazi

[Doug the Dem]

6. Shut Up, You Little (VERY Little)

[Moostache]

7. Natalia Veselnitskaya and needs to be shortened to Nitskaya-gate or just 'Nitskaya

Benghazi drew so much attention because they said it so often it became a mantra...
Chanting "Natalia Veselnitskaya" is infinitely more difficult than "Lock Her Up" or even the eternal classic "Hell no you can't!!!"

So let's start referring to this entire scandal as Nitskaya-gate....its short, pithy, has alliterative echoes of "Nixon" and is more easily chanted!

Bring a gun to the gun fight fellow Dem's .... bring a gun instead of a butter knife!

[maxsolomon]

8. that's a relatively easy ask

since the hacking itself was clearly a crime - theft. just like Watergate. and there doesn't need to be a statute violated for other actions to be clearly unethical.

this constant "you're just jealous" excuse regarding trump's victory is growing tiresome.

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Let's make it so simple even a rightie can understand it

You see, David, we to the left of the Republican Party have this idea that if being a tool of the Kremlin was a bad thing during the Cold War, we believe that being a tool of the Kremlin is a bad thing now. Even when the tool is a Republican and a self-professed "conservative"

What part of that don't you understand?

[lastlib]

10. Well, Dave, I can see your point.....

...I mean, it's not like our very democracy, or our Constitution, are at stake here, or anything...Nah, huh-uh, nope, nothing like survival of "government by the people" is at risk because of some traitorous family of arrogant, narcissistic megalomaniacs..........And of course it couldn't involve anything like defending our system of FREE and FAIR elections, now, could it?

. . . .

[lapucelle]

11. Brat headed a moral foundations of capitalism program

when he was a department chair at a small liberal arts college and is proud of his principled stand.

"Dave believes that the United States was founded on three pillars which together made this nation the greatest on the face of the earth: the Judeo - Christian tradition, the rule of law and the free market system," touts his official biography.

Here's some information on the program that the politician who holds an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary shilled.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/dave-brat-bbt-moral-foundations-of-capitalism

[Shell_Seas]

12. Thanks for posting this

I was just doing some research on him. (Looking for ties to Russia)

A bigger problem then Trump is assholes like him in our government. I mean, really.

[Fresh_Start]

14. No we haven't ...but we have gotten hysterical about voter fraud

with 10 cases out of 150million voters.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

15. The GOP wants it both ways -- declare us a "nation of laws" (at least the ones they like)

but when evidence exists that may show one of their guys has broken a law, it's "The Democrats are upset President Trump won the election."

If Hillary had won and Chelsea was in Li'l Donnie's place, they'd be the first ones yelling "Traitor!" and "Lock her up!"

What's amazing is how much they put party ahead of country, and don't seem to be worried that there might (is?) interference in the American political system by a hostile country (hostile unless you're Donnie Two Scoops, who has a bromance with Putin).

Eventually so many shoes will have dropped Washington is going to look like a Payless shoe store.

[Blue_Tires]

16. Yeah, that's the best talking point they have going right now...

[Ccarmona]

17. All These Sanctimonious Repugs Will Eat Their Words

When Mueller's team drops their legal hammer.

[DeminPennswoods]

18. We know the PUBLIC info is incriminating, just imagine

what the secret and classified info is!

[PatSeg]

19. Not anything like how "hysterical"

republicans got over Hillary's private server and her emails. Do they actually listen to the crap that spews out of their mouths?

[Midnight Writer]

20. "Hysterical" is the Republican Party line. All, including Fox and hate radio, are using that word.

"Russia Fever" doesn't seem to be doing as well. Perhaps a little too close to home.

[longship]

21. "you got"? Where's the fucking verb in that sentence?

You are a fucking idiot, Rep. Brat.

[keithbvadu2]

22. Don't forget the new republican meme: Russia is our friend.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Republicans have always gotten a "little hysterical" about Russia until this year.

How do you explain the difference, Congressman Brat?



Remember "better dead than red" the eternal right-wing gibberish?

[YOHABLO]

24. You see the Republicans are A-OK with Authoritarian Rule by Oligarchs. What's the big deal?

[Skittles]

25. no, you were HYSTERICAL about Hillary

FUCK YOU ALL

[Snackshack]

26. It should not...

Surprise anyone that republicans continue to frame the Russian issue as being no big deal...no matter what is revealed. Republicans have clearly demonstrated they are party before country and they control all the power in congress. They have been laying the groundwork for decades to be in total control of congress in order to repeal all of the social safety programs put in place since FDR. There is nothing DT & Co could do that would cause them to jeopardize the tenuous control they have. It is just dumb luck that after all the work republicans have done over the years to be in the position they are in they end up with with such and unfit/incompetent leader of their party. In a way we should be thankful for DT and his incompetence. The constant distractions of DT presidency has so far kept the republicans from being able to unify coherently and focus on the legislative agenda they have dreamed about for decades.

[Warpy]

27. Well, Brat, lemme 'splain a few things

The Democratic Party, along with Clinton and other top pols, had their email hacked. This is a fact. The NSA determined the hacks were Russian in origin. This is also a fact.

The Republicans including the whole Trump family, approached the Russians (the hostile power) and tried to beg, borrow, or bribe all incriminating information that the hostile power obtained illegally. This is the illegal part, sonny, and this is also a fact.

And now the Republicans, yourself included, are protecting this scum, forming a party wide conspiracy to obstruct justice. That is also a fact.

It doesn't matter that Clinton had done nothing illegal and the Russians came up completely empty. The facts are that your candidate, his organization, and his family pursued illegally obtained information from a hostile foreign power in order to influence an election. That was bad enough. Now you are all trying to cover it up, which is worse.

If you hadn't slept through your high school history classes on the 70s, you'd have heard "the coverup is always worse than the crime."

You are going to hear it in the future. Your party of liars, cheaters and outright mobsters will not be in power forever.

[Progressive dog]

29. Brat may be "a little hysterical" about Russia

but most Democrats are just enjoying the GOP America firsters trying to explain away their collusion with Putin and his Russian mafia.

[roamer65]

30. Fuck this asshole.

Brat is an asshole.