Greg Olear Profile picture
Jun 21, 2018 34 tweets 8 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Back to the topic of this feed: #TrumpRussia.

Trump supporters and apologists MUST come to grips with the fact that their hero lied about Russia, over and over and over again.

If I'm wrong about #collusion, then WHY did he do this?

[THREAD]
1/ Throughout the campaign, during the transition period, and after inauguration, Donald Trump and his surrogates vehemently denied meeting with Russians of any stripe, for any purpose. Every time, they shot it down.
2/ And the Trumpists were indignant about it. The response was always something along the lines of, “Russia? Us? How dare you accuse us of such a thing!”

They never offered an explanation of why they did it. They just denied it. As if they knew it was wrong.
3/ On 24 July 2016, Paul Manafort, then Trump campaign chair and now incarcerated, said of Russian contacts:
“…pure obfuscation…..That’s absurd. And, you know, there’s no basis to it.”
4/ On 24 July 2016, soon to be indicted Donald Trump, Jr said of Russian contacts:
“I can’t think of bigger lies....These lies and the perpetuating of that kind of nonsense to gain some political capital is just outrageous.”
5/
Trump himself, famously, on 27 July 2016:
“I mean I have nothing to do with Russia. I don’t have any jobs in Russia. I’m all over the world, but we’re not involved in Russia.”
6/
Trump another time, on 24 October 2016:
“I have nothing to do with Russia, folks, I’ll give you a written statement.”
7/
The probably-cooperating with-Mueller Hope Hicks, on 11 November 2016:
“It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”
8/
I'm going to go on, but you can see the theme here. These are LIES. Bald-faced, flat-out lies. About Russia. Denials about Russia. Again and again and again.

WHY.
DID.
TRUMP.
AND.
HIS.
TEAM.
LIE.
IF.
THEY.
DID.
NOTHING.
WRONG?
9/ On 18 December 2017, Kellyanne Conway, whose husband is now trying to hedge his bets:
Convos between Trump team & Russians "never happened. I hear people saying it like it’s a fact on television. That is just not only inaccurate and false, but it’s dangerous.”
10/
Trump himself, via tweet, on 11 January 2017:
“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”

[This is laughably false]
11/
Manafort's selection and Flynn's transition team boss Mike Pence, on 15 January 2017:
“Well of course not. I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”
12/
7 February 2017, Trump (tweet):
“I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy…”

16 February 2017, Trump:
“I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that I deal with does.”
13/
Here's @reince on 19 February 2017:
“I can assure you & I have been approved to say this: that the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that is not only inaccurate, but it’s grossly overstated & it was wrong. And there’s nothing to it.”

LIE!
14/
20 February 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy White House press secretary:
Trump/Russia is “a non-story because to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place, so it’s hard to make a comment on something that never happened.”

LIE! BIG LIE! BY THE QUEEN OF LIES!
15/
26 February 2017, Trump (tweet):

“Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”

THIS IS A LIE.
16/ Get the idea yet?

These were all lies—the same big lie, repeated over and over. The Russia Lie.
17/ This repetition of the “Big Lie,” it should be noted, is a propaganda technique developed by the Nazis. Hitler wrote about it in Mein Kompf, one of very few books Trump is believed to have read.
18/
Trump has employed the Big Lie technique for years—lying regularly about his wealth, his fitness, his sexual prowess, and so forth.

But this wasn’t about the size of his bank account, his good cholesterol levels, or his penis. This was about national security.
19/
And yet still, Trump and his minions went on TV, took to Twitter, stood behind the podium in the White House Press Room, and lied egregiously to the American people, over and over and over and over.
20/
In July of 2017, when the press got wind of the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump, Jr. and a Russian attorney that took place the previous June, the Big Lie became impossible for any thinking person to believe. Yet even with this bombshell, the denials continued.
21/
Junior put out a statement on 8 July 2017—one his father the president helped him craft, with help from his communications director Hope Hicks and others.

The statement WAS A LIE.

And Hope Hicks will likely get indicted for it.
22/ Three days after Trump’s namesake son issued that statement, the New York Times was set to publish the emails proving that Junior had in fact met with Russians, and damned well knew what was going to be on the agenda.
23/ How could Junior not have known? The subject line of the emails was this: “RE: RUSSIA - CLINTON - PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.”

That’s not a joke. That’s not me being cute. That was the actual email subject line.
24/
And it appeared in the inbox of Junior, and also of Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. Astute readers will observe that the word “adoption” is nowhere to be found in the subject line. Nor was it in the email exchange itself, which Junior published himself on Twitter.
25/
Again, this happened in July of 2017—more than a year after that Trump Tower meeting. Until then, for months and months, it was a string of denials, the Big Russia Lie repeated ad infinitum.
26/
Again: It took a major newspaper threatening to publish emails proving Russian contact to finally get the Trumps to cop to the truth.
27/
Maybe this could be forgiven if the Trump Tower meeting were unique—if that rendezvous had been the only time Donald & Co. powwowed with the Russians. But this was not the case.
28/ Contrary to their vehement denials—their reiterations of the Big Lie—there were many meetings between associates of Donald Trump and agents of Vladimir Putin.

Not two or three. Not a few. Many.

You can read about them in my book, #DirtyRubles:
amazon.com/dp/1641849266/…
29/
In case you were wondering if it’s standard operating procedure for presidential candidates to meet with Russians: it isn’t.

Hillary Clinton did not meet with the Russians during the campaign.

Barack Obama did not meet with the Russians during the campaign.
30/
Why did Trump meet with the Russians during the campaign? And why did he lie about it? Why is he STILL lying about it?

I call on his supporters to answer that question...and w/o mentioning Hillary, the Deep State, tarmac meetings, or FBI lover texts, none of which matter.
This means you, @seanhannity.
And you, @GreggJarrett, you writer of gross fictions.
You too, @TuckerCarlson.
Curious to hear your thoughts, @IngrahamAngle.

Answer the questions in #30 of this thread. Defend your king. Or lay down your microphones & defect to Russia.
What about you, @SarahHuckabee? Any comment, @Reince? I KNOW you know, @DevinNunes. You too, @SpeakerRyan.

Answer the questions in #30 of this thread. Defend your king. Or lay down your credentials & defect to Russia.
For the record, @Koch_Industries...your father was in the John Birch Society, and one thing you can say about those guys...THEY knew that Russia was the enemy. He's spinning in his grave, watching you two cozy up with Putin via Trump.

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More from @gregolear

Oct 8, 2018
Let’s talk about the House of Kavanaugh—specifically, the hefty mortgage on said house.

[THREAD]
1/ In 2006, Brett & Ashley Kavanaugh bought a house for $1.22m. They put $245k down, a number that does not appear on his financial disclosures of 2005, which show net worth of $91k.
2/ The mortgage payments ($4600/mo.) alone were more than what Brett Kavanaugh took home in 2006 after taxes. His wife did not add enough to the mix to make up the difference.
Read 24 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
In light of the epic (in every sense of the word) NYT story on Trump's tax fraud, let's have a quick review of all the legal troubles these traitors are now in:

[THREAD]
1/ PAUL MANAFORT, Trump’s campaign chair (May-Aug 2016): found guilty on eight counts, pleaded guilty on a bunch more as part of a plea deal in which he must cooperate with Mueller. Met w/Mueller this week, in fact.
2/ MIKE FLYNN, deputy chair of Trump Transition Team, natsec adviser: pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Awaiting sentencing. Will one day get out of prison. Will always be an ugly, ugly man.
Read 19 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
Pleased to announce a slate of #DirtyRubles Trump/Russia events, on three of the next five Sundays:
The event in Madison, my hometown, is taking place at an undisclosed secret location [insert Dick Cheney joke here]. If you'd like to come, you need to RSVP:
facebook.com/events/6757800…

cc: @reallymdp @Post_Truth_Era @CodyStumpo
The Woodstock event is at one of my favorite bookstores in all the world, The Golden Notebook @we_love_books.

Last time I was there, I bought FANTASYLAND by @KBAndersen, one of the best books I've read in recent memory.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 1, 2018
Let's talk about the Putin/Alt-Right/GOP propaganda machine—the REAL Devil's Triangle—as it relates to Brett #Kavanaugh:

[THREAD]
1/ This cozy little messaging arrangement, which operates happily in the dark most of the time, is now being exposed because of the fatally flawed candidate Donald Trump has nominated to the Supreme Court.
2/ The problem with Kavanaugh is manifold: first, that he had six-figure credit card debts paid off by creditors whose identity we still don’t know; second, that he lied during his initial testimony...
Read 37 tweets
Sep 22, 2018
Things might feel a bit bleak. Kavanaugh might be in, Rosenstein might be out, and both would be horrible outcomes for democracy.

So let’s put things into perspective.

[THREAD]
1/ The Kavanaugh fight is not over. Even if he gets CONFIRMED, the fight is not over. He stands credibly accused of sexual assault, and he owes lots and lots of money to…we don’t know who.

There’s also this business of HIS (maybe) stolen emails:
2/ Dr. Ford will likely appear before Congress…and the GOP may bring in outside counsel (note spelling) because THERE ARE NO WOMEN REPUBLICANS ON THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. This is HORRIBLE optics. It will cost them in November. Bigly.
Read 21 tweets
Sep 17, 2018
Let’s talk about #Kavanaugh. This is why he should not be confirmed. And it has nothing to do with his political beliefs.

[THREAD]
1/ #Kavanaugh was not on the list of judges given to Trump by Judicial Watch, but he was tapped anyway. This was after Trump said he’d “study” (hahaha) judicial positions on various things—namely whether or not a POTUS can be indicted.
2/ When @ChuckGrassley says he didn't know about Christine Blasey Ford, he may well be telling the truth. The letter from those 65 women was likely produced ahead of time to defend #Kavanaugh against a DIFFERENT accuser(s) we don't yet know about.
Read 9 tweets

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