UPDATED: Trump says no collusion between his campaign and Russia

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters



DECEMBER 2, 2017 / 9:15 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday there was “absolutely no collusion” between his campaign and Russia, his first comment on a guilty plea by his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion,“ Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for fund-raising events in New York. ”There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.”

Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion by Trump aides.

As part of his plea on Friday, Flynn agreed to cooperate with the investigation.


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn/trump-says-no-collusion-between-his-campaign-and-russia-idUSKBN1DW0HK

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UPDATE:

Trump defends Flynn's actions during transition: 'There was nothing to hide!'

BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 12/02/17 12:18 PM EST

President Trump remarked Saturday on his former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea, saying there was "nothing to hide" about Flynn's actions during the presidential transition.

Link to tweet

Trump's tweets come a day after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Trump campaign associates' ties to Russia.

Flynn acknowledged to investigators that he had spoken with Russia's Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak in the month before Trump took office about U.S. sanctions, despite his previous comments.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362933-trump-on-flynn-guilty-plea-there-was-nothing-to-hide

[LisaL]

1. And as we all know, Trump always tells the truth.

[ananda]

12. Yep, I believe him for sure ..

.. especially if Putin sez so!

[LisaL]

23. Especially when he says "believe me."

We know that must be true then.

[dalton99a]

2. "No puppet. No puppet."

[Fred Sanders]

9. "I am not a crook. Not a crook. Believe me." As he literally fled and continues to flee from

real questioning. What is now, 7 months since a TV interview on other than Foxy and RW Christian TV?

On the advice of lawyers maybe.

[janx]

11. . . .

[Mrs. Overall]

3. DELUSIONAL:

Characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. Textbook... gonna be fun to watch the traitor circling the drain!

[Pachamama]

10. +1000

Exact word that came to mind when I saw him speaking this morning....

[bluestarone]

4. oh yea we can take what he says that to the bank

and get shit for it

[thegoose]

5. Yeah, right

The whole Dump family is in deep with the Russkies.

[yurbud]

16. on the financials, yes. I wish to hell they would just get to that...

[2left4u]

7. I must be dumb

Didn't Flynn just prove the above and now Dumb dumb is trying to defend himself with playing on words (it's a nice change from just outright lying though).

[PatSeg]

28. He has to convince himself

by repeating the lie over and over again. He is devolving rapidly and likely will not recover.

Welcome to DU!

[SergeStorms]

38. He's whistling past the graveyard.

He knows he's in deep guacamole, but he has to keep up appearances for his brain-dead supporters. If he loses them, Bannon's dream of a far-right dictatorship come to a crashing end. They will anyway, but it sure would hasten the process.

[PatSeg]

39. The incompetence of this gang

of misfits is beyond belief. The fact that they got this far is really horrifying.

[SergeStorms]

40. The power of lies.....

right-wing media outlets willing to continuously disseminate those lies, and gullible, ignorant people who'll believe them unchallenged.

I guess that's all it takes. That's all it took for Hitler, and the Republican's platform is based on that model.

[PatSeg]

41. They aren't even good liars

One would think that there would have to be a certain expertise necessary to win over so many people, but apparently the reality TV audience was ready to buy anything. I guess years of conditioning by Fox News and right-wing radio set the groundwork for this nightmare.

[Botany]

8. Step # 2

1 no contact at all

2 contacts but no collusion

3 collusion but nothing abut the election

4 collusion about the election but it didn't effect the vote

5 collusion and it did effect the vote

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections

[bearsfootball516]

31. You forgot step 6

HILLARY DID IT, NOT ME

[NastyRiffraff]

32. Add this:

Collusion but not a crime. So says Dump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow.

[diva77]

13. Is he poisoning the jury pool for future cases brought against all involved?

[Thor_MN]

14. Too fucking stupid to see that what Flynn plead guilty to was LYING about it.

So he puts up LIES about it.

[Ccarmona]

15. The Right Wing Talking Point of No Collusion..has been proven

But what is never said or asked: No Collusion has been dis-proven either.

[yurbud]

20. what? Did this prove collusion or no?

[radical noodle]

24. Yes, that confused me too

[yurbud]

17. the quid pro quo on sanctions is the real beef

[groundloop]

18. I'M NOT A CROOK !!!

[Honeycombe8]

19. Where's the statement that Obama colluded with the Russians?

We all know that OBAMA is to blame for everything!

He already claimed that Hillary colluded with the Russians, didn't he? (To get Trump elected.)

[uppityperson]

21. Obstruction of justice, knowing Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go

[liberal_patriot_md]

34. Exactly.

He fired Comey because of the Flynn investigation. If he knew all along that Flynn lied - why punish the investigator?

Also, they didn’t fire Flynn because he lied to Pence (supposedly) - they fired him only after it was leaked that he “lied” in general about Russian contacts. Same with Manafort.

[Vinca]

22. Jill Wine-Banks (of Watergate hearings) says it's conspiracy not collusion.

[groundloop]

25. EHHH.... Conspiracy, Collusion..... I call it treason

They offered Putin the lifting of sanctions in exchange for enabling Russian interference in the election, it reeks of treason to me.

[Sneederbunk]

26. Then you have absolutely nothing to worry about don't you?

[chelsea0011]

27. How does he even find his way out of bed every morning?

[DangerousUrNot]

29. Trump would never lie to the American public so I believe him.

[C Moon]

30. Hmmm. The TrumPutin team seems to be creating a defense for Pence.

[marble falls]

33. Well in that case, we'll send Mueller home .....

NOT!

[thesquanderer]

35. Funny to see "Trump says no collusion between his campaign and Russia" as a LBN headline.

Hasn't he said that about 100 times already?

[KPN]

36. Moron. Who even gives a fuck about collusion. You're going down

for other things asshat: obstruction of justice (that case is already made) and conspiracy against the US. Tweet about collusion all you want.

[forgotmylogin]

37. He's "happy" they "didn't find collusion"?

“What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion ... There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.”

That doesn't exactly inspire confidence if he didn't know there was "no collusion" before.

The way he creepily repeats it is like he's trying to hammer the point home and make himself believe it.