Stasi Raid Mar-a-Lago

[Stoic]

Some twit from AP asked Trump at a joint news conference if he would condemn Putin - right there - for election interference. And that really angered me. This unknown bonehead from AP, undoubtedly trying to make a name for himself, was attempting to insert himself into US-Russian relations by demanding a nuclear-power world leader condemn another nuclear-power world leader on stage. Who the heck does this creep think he is? I thought Trump was too kind when bothering to answer him. I would have ignored him at least, or had him booted out of the building at best. The nerve of the guy.

In short, it put Trump in an awkward, no-win position. If he condemned Putin there in public, it would have created some really bad relations damage. He chose to wing it and say he had no reason to doubt Putin. Again, Trump should have told the guy to get his big, fat nose out of world affairs.

I didn't see the press conference, but I'll agree that Trump should have ignored the reporter.

But that wasn't the first time that Trump said be believed Putin.

https://www.vox.com/2017/11/11/16636...n-intelligence

This was to reporters on Air Force One.

[Stoic]

What Trump said isn't the issue. It's Huffington Post setting it up as "Trump then seemed to imply he was receiving some of his intelligence about that probe from Fox News and Fox Business shows" when, in fact, Trump implied no such thing. It's classic well poisoning.

The discussion was about whether Trump spent much time watching Fox News. The Huffington Post's characterization of his statement is not relevant.

[Ronson]

I didn't see the press conference, but I'll agree that Trump should have ignored the reporter.

But that wasn't the first time that Trump said be believed Putin.

https://www.vox.com/2017/11/11/16636...n-intelligence

This was to reporters on Air Force One.

He's a poor judge of character, as seen by his administration choices. GW Bush said of Putin "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. . . I was able to get a sense of his soul.”

But I'm glad you agree that it is not the position of a reporter to try to guide international relations.

[Juvenal]

To put a slightly different spin on this...

Imagine while Biden was in Saudi Arabia and doing a joint news conference that some unknown journalist from Fox demanded Biden condemn the Saudi Crown Prince - right there on stage - for murdering Khashoggi? How would you feel about it?

They lured him in and ripped his body apart while his fiancee was waiting outside. Biden promised to hold them accountable.

JOE BIDEN, IN DEPARTURE FROM OBAMA POLICY, SAYS HE WOULD MAKE SAUDI ARABIA A “PARIAH”
.

FOREIGN POLICY took center stage in Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, with former Vice President Joe Biden saying he would not sell weapons to Saudi Arabia — marking a sharp contrast with the Obama administration — and stressing he would make the Saudis “pay the price” for their killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

“I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.” Biden also said there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia,” and, in reference to Yemen, said he would end “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children.”

Biden’s admission is a significant departure from the Democratic Party position before Donald Trump. Saudi Arabia objected to the United States’ posture during the Arab Spring, as well as the Obama administration’s diplomatic overtures toward Iran, but that did not stop the U.S. from supporting the Saudis’ intervention in Yemen and from selling Saudi Arabia more than $100 billion in weapons. In recent years, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, and Khashoggi’s murder has led Democrats to call for fundamental changes to the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

I'd say it was about damn time somebody asked him hard questions about his changed position.

I'm still enraged over this. For all, please watch the video starting at 2:10 and tell me if this reporter wasn't WAAAAY out of line. If you were POTUS, how would you respond?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccKmRBTB8oU

I'd like to think I'd respond by telling the truth. Possibly I'd deflect. But under no circumstances would I retaliate against a reporter for asking hard questions.

That's not just a reporter doing his job, it's a reporter exercising a freedom granted under the first amendment to the Constitution. Constitutional rights are like muscles, use them or lose them. On the contrary, what I find distasteful is the idea you feel justified in promoting the kind of suppression of the press that saw Khashoggi butchered, and practiced by autocrats in Putin's Russia where reporters are regularly killed when their reporting embarrasses their leaders.

Why Do Russian Journalists Keep Falling?
.

Maybe Maxim Borodin was depressed in ways his friends just didn't recognize and threw himself off of his fifth-floor balcony this week in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Maxim Borodin was 32 and a reporter for the local Novy Den website, for which he had done tough stories about crime and political corruption, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch indicted by the United States for running the "troll factory" that helped Russia try to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Maxim Borodin wasn't just reporting on the latest craze in spa treatments.

Reporters for the website say there were no signs of a struggle in his apartment. But he had been previously threatened for his stories, and Paulina Rumyantseva, his editor, told CNN, "As Maxim had big plans for his personal life and career, there is nothing to support a verdict of suicide."

Journalism is a dangerous trade in Russia.

Dozens of Russian journalists have been murdered since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Glasnost Defense Foundation. They weren't covering shooting wars or riots but powerful Russian institutions. A surprising number have implausibly fallen or slipped to their deaths.

In March 2007, Ivan Safronov, who was investigating the sale of Russian arms to Iran and Syria, died after falling from a fifth-floor window. It was ruled a suicide.

In November 2009, independent broadcaster Olga Kotovskaya fell to her death from a 14th-floor window. She had been battling for control of her station with a member of the government. Her death was also ruled a suicide.

In February 2012, Victor Aphanasenko, editor of a newspaper that had been investigating paramilitary raids in southern Russia, died after slipping in his home.

In November 2015, Mikhail Lesin, who was often described as President Vladimir Putin's state media czar but who had fallen out of favor with him, was found dead after a fall in his hotel room in Washington, D.C. The FBI says he fell from extreme drinking and had "blunt force trauma to the head" and injuries to his neck, arms, legs and torso. That must have been some fall.

In March 2017, Nikolai Gorokhov, the lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky, who was the source of reporting on Russia's largest tax fraud, fell from a fourth-story window while trying to move a bathtub. Russian authorities made that explanation with a straight face.

Their names are on a roll of honor with almost 30 more dauntless Russian reporters. Let us hope brave Russian journalists stay away from windows.

The creator of “Sputnik and Pogrom” Yegor Prosvirnin fell out of a window in the center of Moscow
.

In the center of Moscow, a Russian journalist, founder of the Sputnik and Pogrom project blocked in Russia, Yegor Prosvirnin, fell out of a window. The journalist passed away at the age of 35.

Prosvirnin fell out of the window of a multi-storey building on Tverskoy Boulevard and died before the ambulance arrived. Some eyewitnesses claimed that the deceased had a knife in his hands, and a pepper spray was lying not far from the body – the journalist allegedly threw them out of the window, neighbors of the creator of “Sputnik and Pogrom” said.

[Ronson]

They lured him in and ripped his body apart while his fiancee was waiting outside. Biden promised to hold them accountable.

JOE BIDEN, IN DEPARTURE FROM OBAMA POLICY, SAYS HE WOULD MAKE SAUDI ARABIA A “PARIAH”
.

FOREIGN POLICY took center stage in Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, with former Vice President Joe Biden saying he would not sell weapons to Saudi Arabia — marking a sharp contrast with the Obama administration — and stressing he would make the Saudis “pay the price” for their killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

“I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.” Biden also said there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia,” and, in reference to Yemen, said he would end “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children.”

Biden’s admission is a significant departure from the Democratic Party position before Donald Trump. Saudi Arabia objected to the United States’ posture during the Arab Spring, as well as the Obama administration’s diplomatic overtures toward Iran, but that did not stop the U.S. from supporting the Saudis’ intervention in Yemen and from selling Saudi Arabia more than $100 billion in weapons. In recent years, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, and Khashoggi’s murder has led Democrats to call for fundamental changes to the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

I'd say it was about damn time somebody asked him hard questions about his changed position.

And that's fine because it was Biden's decision to go after the Saudis, our elected leader, and not some nameless boob in the bleachers. Your being upset with Biden for not following through is another matter. But I still would not put up with a reporter trying to steer the interrelations - not while on stage with Saudi officials and being pressured to alter the negotiations. I couldn't believe so many OMB types were applauding this guy afterward. I thought it was embarrassing and shameful.

I'd like to think I'd respond by telling the truth. Possibly I'd deflect. But under no circumstances would I retaliate against a reporter for asking hard questions.

It's not a matter of simply asking hard questions. Did you see the exchange? He was trying to get Trump to denounce Putin to his face - in front of the world.

That's not just a reporter doing his job, it's a reporter exercising a freedom granted under the first amendment to the Constitution. Constitutional rights are like muscles, use them or lose them. On the contrary, what I find distasteful is the idea you feel justified in promoting the kind of suppression of the press that saw Khashoggi butchered, and practiced by autocrats in Putin's Russia where reporters are regularly killed when their reporting embarrasses their leaders.

Telling off one guy at one news conference is somehow suppressing the press? So, you're fine with nameless jokers trying to run the country. Perhaps that's why you have no problem with the DC swamp and all the nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats running this country. I find that distasteful.

[Mountain Man]

The discussion was about whether Trump spent much time watching Fox News. The Huffington Post's characterization of his statement is not relevant.

He said he watched FOX News. He never implied it's where he got his intelligence information.

I'm telling you, man, you gotta be less gullible.

[Juvenal]

I would have ignored him at least, or had him booted out of the building at best. The nerve of the guy.

Telling off one guy at one news conference is somehow suppressing the press?

You should read what you write sometime. I'm thinking it might surprise you, too.

[Stoic]

He said he watched FOX News. He never implied it's where he got his intelligence information.

I'm telling you, man, you gotta be less gullible.

Where he got his intelligence information wasn't part of the discussion.

You gotta try to keep up.

[NorrinRadd]

Trump said that after being pressured by a worthless AP reporter that was trying to stir up trouble and create an international scene (probably to advance his worthless career). Trump shouldn't have said it, but he felt he had little choice. I would have told the reporter ... . It still makes me seethe thinking about it. Imagine, an anonymous unelected journalist from some company trying to steer international relations by demanding ultimatums. I would have used some choice words and told the guy to get lost. But I would have used a lot of special characters to do it (like # % & @ !).

In my eyes, the pinnacle of Darth Cheney's career was his famous line to Pat Leahy. (Not a reporter, of course, but still...)

[rogue06]

I suspect that the searchers figured that claims of planting evidence would be less bothersome than having to assign an agent to each lawyer present to make sure he didn't touch anything, and to tell him to shut up if he tried to say anything.

Always a possibility but not a smart move.

The fact that you think an FBI agent should simply respond "shut up" if a lawyer asks a question speaks volumes about you.

[rogue06]

In my eyes, the pinnacle of Darth Cheney's career was his famous line to Pat Leahy. (Not a reporter, of course, but still...)

When he accidentally shot his buddy in the face with a shotgun (fortunately full of birdshot) we blew an opportunity. We should have used him to negotiate with North Korea and Iran. They couldn't help but think that this is a man who shot his friend in the face, and maybe we shouldn't piss him off.

[rogue06]

Telling off one guy at one news conference is somehow suppressing the press? So, you're fine with nameless jokers trying to run the country. Perhaps that's why you have no problem with the DC swamp and all the nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats running this country. I find that distasteful.

When Trump banned one CNN reporter from his press conferences for a week the MSM lost it.

When Obama banned not just a reporter but an entire network not just from covering his press conferences -- but anything to do with the executive branch (like the State Department, DOJ and the Pentagon), the MSM had to decide whether or not that was kosher.

[Juvenal]

When he accidentally shot his buddy in the face with a shotgun (fortunately full of birdshot) we blew an opportunity.

Hold on a second. Who's to say his buddy didn't clap half-heartedly.

[rogue06]

Since a year ago, all FBI, ATF, etc. agents are required to wear bodycams for search warrants. Various right wing groups have already been filing FOIA requests for the body cam footage (hopefully they grasp that they'll not be getting un-blurred footage for classified docs if they get it approved)

Why would the Secret Service be wearing bodycams, they didn't perform a search ? (I'll patiently wait for a link to these several dozen photos of FBI agents involved)


https://www.npr.org/2021/06/08/10044...ar-body-camera

Here are a couple that can be seen by simply entering "raid mar-a-lago"
into the search and clicking images. Maybe you should try it?
3227ba9a-b831-47e2-ae82-4c95d0137c9b.jpg695955ba-3c54-4fe1-8f05-f87a2b84beb6.jpg

maralago-raid-fbi-agent-getty.jpg


Although, after going through some more, I found one that might have one.
I'm not sure, so I circled it.
gettyimages-1242402661_slide-ca48cf27e84a42721ee8822671fcfbc8b9eb37a4-1622x1080.jpg
But I don't think he's FBI or Secret Service. He looks like a regular cop

[Juvenal]

When Obama banned not just a reporter but an entire network not just from covering his press conferences -- but anything to do with the executive branch (like the State Department, DOJ and the Pentagon), the MSM had to decide whether or not that was kosher.

Queue the lie-peddler opening fire on fact checkers in 3 ... 2 .... 1 ...

Did Obama Block Fox News Reporters from White House Press Conferences?