Flynn, fired once by a president, now resigns to another
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump was accompanied by, from second from left, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Jan. 28. Trump spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway take their seats today before the start of a joint news conference with President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the East Room of the White House.
WASHINGTON >> Fired by one American commander in chief for insubordination, Michael Flynn has now delivered his resignation to another.
President Donald Trump had been weighing the fate of his national security adviser, a hard-charging, feather-ruffling retired lieutenant general who just three weeks into the new administration had put himself in the center of a controversy. Flynn resigned late Monday.
At issue was Flynn’s contact with Moscow’s ambassador to the United States. Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak appear to have discussed U.S. sanctions late last year, raising questions about whether he was freelancing on foreign policy while President Barack Obama was still in office and whether he misled Trump officials about the calls.
The center of a storm is a familiar place for Flynn. His military career ended when Obama dismissed him as defense intelligence chief. Flynn claimed he was pushed out for holding tougher views than the Obama administration about Islamic extremism. But a former senior U.S. official who worked with Flynn said the firing was for insubordination, after the Army lieutenant general failed to follow guidance from superiors.
Once out of government, he disappeared into the murky world of mid-level defense contractors and international influence peddlers. He shocked his former colleagues a little more than a year later by appearing at a Moscow banquet headlined by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Given a second chance by Trump, Flynn, a lifelong if apolitical Democrat, became a trusted and eager confidant of the Republican candidate, joining anti-Hillary Clinton campaign chants of “Lock Her Up” and tweeting that “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”
As national security adviser, Flynn required no Senate confirmation vote or public vetting of his record, and his tenure was brief but turbulent.
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The Washington Post and other U.S. newspapers, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported last week that Flynn made explicit references to U.S. sanctions on Russia in conversations with Kislyak. One of the calls took place on Dec. 29, the day Obama announced new penalties against Russia’s top intelligence agencies over allegations they meddled in the U.S. election process to help Trump win.
While it’s not unusual for incoming administrations to have discussions with foreign governments before taking office, the repeated contacts just as the U.S. was pulling the trigger on sanctions suggests Trump’s team might have helped shape Russia’s response. They also contradicted denials about such discussions of the sanctions by several Trump administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence.
Flynn later backed off his adamant denials. On Friday, he said he “no recollection” of discussing sanctions policy but “can’t be certain,” according to an official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
He apologized to Pence, who, apparently relying on Flynn’s denials, vouched for him on television. In his resignation letter, Flynn said he held numerous calls with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the transition and gave “incomplete information” about those discussions to Pence.
For days, Trump was publicly and unusually quiet on the matter. While his aides were declaring the president had confidence in Flynn, Trump privately told associates he was troubled by the situation, according to a person who spoke with him recently.
INSUBORDINATION
Flynn’s sparkling military resume had included key assignments at home and abroad, and high praise from superiors.
The son of an Army veteran of World War II and the Korean war, Flynn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1981 after graduating from the University of Rhode Island. He started in intelligence, eventually commanding military intelligence units at the battalion and then brigade level. In the early years of the Iraq war, he was intelligence chief for Joint Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of secret commando units like SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force. He then led intelligence efforts for all U.S. military operations in the Middle East and then took up the top intelligence post on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon.
Ian McCulloh, a Johns Hopkins data science specialist, became an admirer of Flynn while working as an Army lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan in 2009. At the time, Flynn ran intelligence for the U.S.-led international coalition in Kabul and was pushing for more creative approaches to targeting Taliban networks, including use of data mining and social network analysis, according to McCulloh.
“He was pushing for us to think out of the box and try to leverage technology better and innovate,” McCulloh said, crediting Flynn for improving the effectiveness of U.S. targeting. “A lot of people didn’t like it because it was different.”
It was typical of the determined, though divisive, approach Flynn would adopt at the Defense Intelligence Agency, which provides military intelligence to commanders and defense policymakers. There, he quickly acquired a reputation as a disruptive force. While some applauded Flynn with forcing a tradition-bound bureaucracy to abandon old habits and seek out new, more effective ways of collecting and analyzing intelligence useful in the fight against extremist groups, others saw his efforts as erratic and his style as prone to grandstanding.
In the spring of 2014, after less than two years on the job, he was told to pack his bags.
According to Flynn’s telling, it was his no-nonsense approach to fighting Islamic extremist groups that caused the rift.
A former senior Obama administration official who was consulted during the deliberations disputed that account. Flynn was relieved of his post for insubordination after failing to follow guidance from superiors, including James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, said the official, who asked for anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
CIVILIAN LIFE
Plunged into civilian life for the first time in 33 years, Flynn moved quickly to capitalize on his military and intelligence world connections and experience. He did so in an unorthodox way.
“I didn’t walk out like a lot of guys and go to big jobs in Northrup Grumman or Booz Allen or some of these other big companies,” Flynn told Foreign Policy magazine in 2015.
Instead, he opened his own consulting firm, Flynn Intelligence Group, in Alexandria, Va. He brought in his son, Michael G. Flynn as a top aide, and began assembling a crew of former armed forces veterans with expertise in cyber, logistics and surveillance, and sought out ties with lesser-known figures and companies trying to expand their profiles as contractors in the military and intelligence spheres.
One “team” member listed on the firm’s site was James Woolsey, President Bill Clinton’s former CIA director. Woolsey briefly joined Flynn on Trump’s transition team as a senior adviser, but quit in January. Another was lobbyist Robert Kelley.
Kelley proved a central player in the Flynn Group’s decision to help a Turkish businessman tied to Turkey’s government. At the same time that Flynn was advising Trump on national security matters, Kelley was lobbying legislators on behalf of businessman Ekim Alptekin’s firm between mid-September and December last year, lobbying documents show.
It was an odd match. Flynn has stirred controversy with dire warnings about Islam, calling it a “political ideology” that “definitely hides behind being a religion” and accusing Obama of preventing the U.S. from “discrediting” radical Islam. But his alarms apparently didn’t extend to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government as it cracked down on dissent and jailed thousands of opponents after a failed coup last summer. Erdogan’s power base is among Turkey’s conservative Muslim voters and many affected by his crackdown are secularists.
Shortly before Trump’s election, Flynn wrote an op-ed saying Turkey needed U.S. support and echoing Erdogan’s warnings that a “shady” Turkish Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania should not be protected by the United States. Erdogan accuses the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of orchestrating the coup attempt and has requested extradition. Obama officials widely described Turkey’s evidence of Gulen’s wrongdoing as insufficient.
Alptekin, the businessman, told The Associated Press he met Flynn several times starting last summer. He wouldn’t detail their conversations. Alptekin said he met mostly with Kelley, a former chief counsel to a congressional subcommittee, who registered with Congress as a lobbyist for Inovo BV, a company Alptekin established in the Netherlands in 2005. Alptekin also is a member of a Turkish economic relations board run by an Erdogan appointee, though he says he has no official relationship with Turkey’s government.
Kelley said Flynn’s consulting firm could help “do something about improving the relations between Turkey and the United States,” Alptekin told the AP. He said he didn’t consider any need for his firm or Kelley to register with the Justice Department as a “foreign agent in this context” because his firm was “not a government entity.”
FOREIGN AGENT?
Kelley also was a registered foreign agent for the National Mobilization Force, a Turkish-backed militia fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. Documents filed with the Justice Department show Kelley was paid $90,000 to “convey the views” of the armed group to Congress, federal officials and the media.
The Justice records do not cite any Kelley affiliation with the Flynn Group. But a December letter from Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to top federal intelligence officials raised questions about whether Kelley inappropriately represented the militia on behalf of Flynn’s firm, which they said raises “the potential for pressure, coercion, and exploitation by foreign agents.”
Several ethics experts also said Flynn’s firm should have registered with the Justice Department. “If a foreign entity is lobbying Congress on influencing U.S policy, they need to file under the foreign agent act,” said Lydia Dennett, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington good government group.
Alptekin said Inovo BV paid Flynn’s firm “tens of thousands of dollars.” Kelley said Flynn’s firm made less than $5,000 for its three months of work on behalf of Alptekin’s company when he filed a lobbying termination notice to Congress on Dec. 1.
Kelley and Flynn Intel Group have not responded to multiple calls and emails from the AP. Flynn said in a statement that Kelley provided to Yahoo News in mid-November that “if I return to government service, my relationship with my company will be severed.”
The Flynn Intel Group’s website no longer operates and AP visits to three northern Virginia locations associated with the firm no longer showed any company activity or identification. Several Flynn Intel Group staffers who worked for the firm and its cyber and flight subsidiaries, FIG Cyber Inc. and FIG Aviation, departed around the November election.
BLIMP IN A BOX
Flynn had other nontraditional business engagements.
In early 2015, he signed on with the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks as a member of its Public Sector Advisory Council comprising retired military officers working as a “sounding board” to answer “the technology needs of the world’s governments.”
He advised Conversion Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in tech-oriented investments. He was briefly listed as a board director of GreenZone Systems, a technology firm headed by another Flynn Intel Group partner, Iranian-American investor Bijan Kian.
And then there was Drone Aviation, a firm that makes tethered surveillance drones. Flynn was named vice chairman and a board member in May 2016, and said he would promote the firm’s “blimp in a box” concept for military and government use and expand “the role of persistent aerial solutions in the marketplace.”
The company later won a $400,000 Defense Department contract. Drone Aviation paid Flynn a $36,000 annual salary and awarded him 100,000 shares of restricted stock. He was re-elected to the board after Trump’s election but stepped down from the board after being offered his job at the White House.
Another venture was Brainwave Science, a Boston company publicizing its use of “brain fingerprinting,” scans that the firm claims can be used to assess a person’s honesty. Flynn briefly joined the advisory board in February 2016. The firm’s concept is disputed by critics and one adviser left the board after media reports surfaced that he pleaded guilty in 1996 to selling stolen biotech material to Russia’s spy agency.
MEETING PUTIN
Like many former military officials, Flynn boosted his profile by appearing on television news and talk shows, including several networks connected to foreign governments. They include Qatar-backed Al Jazeera and RT, the news network aligned with the Russian government. He has said he wasn’t paid for the appearances.
But a December 2015 trip to RT’s 10th anniversary celebration would put Flynn in some unique company. An RT video from the Moscow event showed Flynn seated next to Putin and rising during a standing ovation following the Russian leader’s address.
Flynn has acknowledged being paid for the appearance, but hasn’t said who wrote the check or for how much. Flynn’s webpage at All American Speakers shows a standard lecture circuit fee in the $30,000-$50,000 range.
According to another attendee at the event, Jill Stein, the former Green Party presidential candidate who won 1 percent of the popular vote last November, RT paid for the Moscow event.
Stein told the AP she turned down the network’s offer to pay for her transportation and stay at Moscow’s Hotel Metropol, where the event was held. “I didn’t think it was appropriate for a presidential candidate to take money from a foreign government,” she said.
Before dinner, Flynn was interviewed on international issues by an RT personality. He then joined Stein and others at a front table, seated with Putin and an entourage of aides. Stein said she didn’t see Flynn and Putin talk privately at the table.
Flynn later told the Post that he had only a brief introduction with Putin. Flynn shrugged off the meeting as “boring.”
Still, several Democratic House members have asked if Flynn accepted payment from RT and if that is a violation of the federal Emoluments Clause, which prohibits even retired military officers from accepting direct or indirect payments from foreign governments.
Flynn was both hopeful and skeptical about Russia relations before joining Trump’s administration. In his 2016 book “The Field of Fight,” Flynn warned that Russia had joined an “enemy alliance” with Iran. But he also talked publicly of Russia as a possible ally with the U.S. in confronting radical Islam.
97 responses to “Flynn, fired once by a president, now resigns to another”
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Wow, that was fast!
Let the barrage of comments begin!!
IRT GoneFolfin, President Trump and his Administration will do the Right Things. We must have faith in America, to make it Safe and Great Again.
Starting……….now……..no, not now………now…#MAGA
One Russian mole down a boatload more to go.
These is a Libertard/Democrat Mole in the WH or FBI or CIA? Think people why would a Trump backer spill leaks li dis? We all see what the Libertards/Democrats are about and now the US/we taxpayers are gonna have to pay our own to go undercover to catch the Libertard within.
We are losing our Country to Libertarded thinking, they lie, deceive, cheat, etc. even the Media is in Cahoots with these Democrocks. They were obviously exposed during this election cycle. They don’t know how to lose gracefully and I feel TheDonald will now show the American People how he needs to clean Da Swamp! There is NO National Security with a mole in the System, maybe it’s a planted Russian Spy as the LIbertards/Democrats believed to have skewed our election.
As I always stated these Libertards/Democrats will blame everything and everybody but themselves or Party lines for their gain.
Pocho… A National Security Adviser, named by the president, engaging in diplomatic discussions with a rep from a foreign government–before his appointer even took office, then lying about it, then admitting it and resigning is evidence to you of some kind of liberal conspiracy?
Dude, you’re ideology would more accurately be called a pathology.
kurowaj – Trump is hiring people for their loyalty to him and not for their experience, competence or honesty. The administration is a failure already. If he wants any hope of doing a single thing that won’t be overturned, he needs to hire some competent staff.
America has always been safe and great. You bought into Trump’s nonsense about the United States being some diminished superpower wannabe. He’s using fear to control cowards. It’s sad and pathetic.
IRT Klastri, keep watching as all the Conservative changes are completed with the unwinding all of Hawaii born ex-president Obama’s exec orders over eight years.
Obama has never been more popular, Trump never more unpopular. Flynn is the first rat to leave the sinking ship. He won’t be the last. The Trump administration is spectacular only in its degree of incompetence. Soon enough the GOP leaders will impeach him, knowing that the destruction of the Republican Party and the loss of both the Senate and the House will be the result if they fail to act. It’s been a long, strange trip so far.
IRT kuroiwaj, U better hope those bumbling conservatives don’t unwind the bouyant US economy Obama rebuilt after GWB left at the bottom of the lua 8 years ago
Not so fast, Klastri. Obama had more than a few of these in his administration. See for yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/politics/gallery/obama-administration-resignations-firings/
it is not a Trump backer or Conservative being the Mole. It’s a Libertard/Democrat or foreign Spy. They and the Media are against the US of A. It is obvious but yet you people are blinded by Politics
irt mito, Barry doubled the National debt in 8 years, he put America in the hole. You Libertards/Democrats had 8 years to create jobs, to keep America safe, etc., and the middle class has spoken electing TheDonald.
irt klastri, After glancing over this article I found this excerpt: “Flynn, a lifelong if apolitical Democrat, became a trusted and eager confidant of the Republican candidate”…
I expect no less from a Democrat. Read and Weep
IRT Pocho
…because apprentice president has been busy making china great again…
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/02/14/breaking-news/trump-toilets-condoms-could-be-flushed-after-his-china-win/#comment-297731
IRT kuroiwaj..I have faith in America and the checks and balances we have in place is the best in the world. One man can’t change diddly, but the nation can. You don’t do it by attacking and denigrating people. The name calling, the self inflicted issues and the kinds of people he listens to will never go away unless he realizes he is not the “man”. In other words he needs good people. He has some who I think might do good but a lot of unqualified “hanger ons” IMHO.
btw…America has never been anything but GREAT…so no need to try and make it great again. The only ones who can make things good again is ..”we the people”.
IRT Dai, excellent post. Mahalo.
Agree, the fault corrected by the resignation. Let’s move forward!
yes, Drain da Swamp! There’s a Libertard, Democrat, or maybe a Russian spy in our system at the WH. And as we see, whatever entity it is it’s about destroying America from within.
@ Dai, kuroiwaj, cojef & pocho
No administration is without people who break laws & ethics.
POTUS Trump lost TRUST…not to mention making VP Pence look bad.
#DrainTheSwamp can also mean the current administration.
@ kuroiwaj
Lost TRUST. Gone. And rightfully so.
Dumb move on Flynn’s part..st00pid.
the fiasco continues…The trouble is not only that we have an incompetent president but that he is dishonest to boot.
The trouble we have that there’s still a Mole in or near the WH. By my decuctions, it’s a Libertard, Democrat or some Russian spy, etc.. Certainly not a Trump backer but who knows it could even be a disgruntled Republican/Conservative. Again the WH is being spied on at this moment! There’s no security until that spy is exposed and caught
What you probably have is someone in the national security establishment or the justice department who was alarmed that the white house did nothing no address the fact that the national security advisor had been compromised by Russia and our of concern for the security of our country leaked it to the press. Given the fact that the white house new Flynn was compromised and did nothing but try to hide it, we owe this whistleblower a debt of gratitude for looking out for the security of our country over the inactions of the Orange One and the inaction of his cabal of incompetents.
Fake news. Trump will fix the leak and leaker.
Great, can this move now bring both sides closer together??? #MAGA
Has this happened during Obamas Reign??? #MAGA
Who’s Obama?
…you remember, the guy who pulled the US economy out of the toilet where GWB left it 8 years ago
That Guy who divided the country for 8 years and left us unprotected and at the mercy of the rest of the world.
IRT davcon: HAHAHA!!! You had no choice but to be divided, Obama forced it on you…At the mercy of the rest of the world??? Where???…#MAGA
IRT davcon…
If you’re so worried about protection, the apprentice prezident also sells them as his side gig…
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/02/14/breaking-news/trump-toilets-condoms-could-be-flushed-after-his-china-win/#comment-297731
however, better get ’em quick, he likely follow his products
IRT Jusris, we begin with Hawaii born ex-President Obama’s 32 Czars who also were not confirmed by the Senate.
Is that the same thing as this??? #MAGA
IRT Jusris, almost the same.
Yes, jusris, it happened more than a few times during Obama’s reign. This is a list of fourteen of the most significant: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/politics/gallery/obama-administration-resignations-firings/
After assessing the situation it was the right decision. No reason to needlessly get into a debate that goes round in circles and to end up in the same place. Move on… 🙂
I thought you were talking about this comment section…#MAGA
Bingo! The Libertards/Democrats would be denying everything, of course conjecture on my part.
Before the inauguration, Trump was warned by a deputy attorney general and a senior intelligence official that Flynn lied about his Russian contacts and was subject to blackmail by Russia, but Trump still appointed Flynn to be National Security Director. Amazing. And then Trump fired the deputy attorney general. What did Trump know and when did he know it. Did Trump know about Flynn’s interaction with Russia during the campaign? Did Trump know about Russian hacking? Can Trump survive?
HAHAHA!!! But what about Clintons email…Obama took vacations in Hawaii…We don’t even have Obamas real birth certificate…Fake News…Media made him do it, they are so corrupt…Buy Ivankas clothes…#MAGA
Of course Trump knew. If this isn’t further proof that the Russians didn’t hack the election–I don’t know what is. Impeach Trump.
The Russians did not hack the election. They hacked the DNC e-mail.
Flynn was the scapegoat to take some of the heat and focus off trump. Wonder what trump promised him.
Hilarious. What a lying SOS.
Credit to GOP Rick Santorum for calling this “resignation” what is is … “I’m not surprised that this firing took place (but) it was pretty quick.”
luckily Flynn accepted his lies, deceit, etc. to the American People. No need to play it like Bill in full view of everyone.
Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!
Will this lead to the desk of the President? Did he do the dirty work for the President in order for Trump to win this election?
Lying crooked HiLIARy got beat. Get over it. The dirty work of the DNC was exposed and The loser should be in prison for misuse of classified emails. When will the wimps stop whining. Eight great years ahead.
Bingo!
Excellent!
Remember his screaming, raving speech at the convention? Neither do I; but, it was probably some puritanical, “we are the best,” “the country is doomed if you don’t elect Trump,” and probably something about Hillary belonging in jail. I really don’t remember, and I think I’m glad I don’t. Good riddance!
Now, maybe we can move on to KellyAnn next. She has got to go!
Priebus likely to go before Conway, but think they’ll be given time to settle in. Obviously, Flynn had to go and probably shouldn’t have been the national security adviser to begin with.
C ya. YOUR FIRED!!
thank God for TheDonald! No and, if’s or but’s. Hasta la Vista, baby!
@ pocho
Agree!
Plus more BS in the resignation letter..Last line, Donald Trump and Mike Pence will go down in history as the Greatest Presidency in U.S.history. Give Me a Flukinhg Break u freaking psycho.
If Trump listened to the Justice Department and information provided by intelligence, he would not be in this position. It’s not surprising, though, because Trump will dismiss anything that he doesn’t want to hear – even if they are FACTUAL. I hope he learns from this and begins to understand that the various intelligence agencies can actually HELP him and provide him with facts and information going forward. All he needs to do is set his ego aside and do what is best for the country, not just for himself or the Republican party.
Unfortunately, trump WON’T learn from this, and is pathologically unable to set aside his ego. Haven’t you noticed that he refuses to admit when he is wrong and NEVER apologizes for anything. He probably sees it as a weakness.
Try another retired light general.
I thought Kellyannne said the guy had the Orange Guy’s full confidence.
She misspoke…But Ivanka makes a great product at a reasonable price…#MAGA
Trump needs to start all over again. Get rid of Conway,Spicer,and Priebus. Their no help to him.
Conway says one thing and Spicer says something else.
Add Miller to the group. This guys is an Alien, this puppy is strange. Watch him on interviews and he is strange.
You thought so too? Maybe this is why he was kept mostly hidden until now.
I’m kind of waiting for SNL to dress a look-alike in the uniform of an SS Oberst, give him a Katzenjammer accent and turn him loose.
I’m just surprised Putin accepted his resignation.
Russiagate…. The dominos start to fall……
one down, more to come. Who’s next?
I am troubled by this turn of events. Mainly because of the deceit that was uncovered and reported by the liberal media. After all is said and done, it turned out to be true.
I find it troubling that Trump couldn’t fire this man. This man fell on the sword for Trump. One would think with this revelation and admission of lying, the POTUS would be front and center on the issue. We hardly have a peep from him. No rant about being a traitor or breaking the laws of the USA.
The transition team was notified by the outgoing acting US Attorney of the compromise. They chose to overlook the report and evidence.
“White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn,..” this right before he resigns and forwards his admission to discussing the sanctions with the Russian. What does it take for some people to see and recognize they are putting out alternative facts?
Flynn really made a fool out of the VP of the USA! Our VP! I get angry that my VP was made to look like a fool!
“In the course of my duties as the incoming National Security Adviser, I held numerous phone calls with foreign counter parts, ministers and ambassadors.”
Foreign counter parts as in Russian Security Adviser?
“In the course of my duties…” seem to indicate that he was instructed to make contact and discuss the sanctions. Again, I conclude this man fell on the sword for Trump. Because if it is found that Trump ordered him to do this, the administration will be guilty of violating the Laws of the United States and be up for impeachment.
I’ve read the letter and he doesn’t mention discussing the sanctions. Only “I might have…” is the closet we’ll get to a confession.
Add another phrase aside from “alternative facts”…”incomplete information”. I’m guessing it to mean… neva tell you da truth.
I’m praying Trump will start to rethink some of the people in his cabinet and really find the ones who have All of America in their DNA. I always felt, just because you work hard on my campaign, doesn’t make you a leader or a wise person.
good comments. However, as an American, I wonder what are the ties between this administration and Russia? This administration is so cozy with Putin. So many of Trump’s associates have close ties to Russia. Why does Trump not release tax returns not under audit? Would it reveal some ties there? Trump appears to be compromised our country.
I’m hoping the FBI investigation will continue into the Russian intervention.
Some strange things have taken place in Russia involving the cyber czar and some of his people. Kidnapped in the middle of a meeting and so far, no word about where he is. Only that he is being charged with treason. This is the guy who orchestrated the hack and possibly the release of information about Trump’s actions in Russia.
Our security apparatus might be uncovering more info. on the Flynn dealings. Heard on Repub. ask who leaked the info. on Flynn and questioned why a US citizen was being spied on. I think the FBI was monitoring the Russian and Flynn made the contacts and put himself into the picture. Monitoring the Russians make sense since they are accused of hacking our security.
I hope Flynn didn’t act on Trump’s orders. Then again, would Flynn do this on his own? Remember he is a very good soldier. He might have acted on orders. Question is if he did act on orders, who gave them, who will take responsibility. So much for transparency.
Lying crooked HiLIARy got beat. Get over it. The dirty work of the DNC was exposed and The loser should be in prison for misuse of classified emails. When will the wimps stop whining. Eight great years ahead.
This has just begun and the trail will lead inevitably to Trump. It’s impossible to conceive that Donald didn’t instruct Flynn to violate the Logan Act.
This joke of a presidency is over. The problem is the Chump and he won’t change. Captain Kangaroo would be an excellent replacement.
The really troubling thing is…with polls showing a extraordinarily high disapproval rating, with advisers and spokespeople giving out very different stories, it must make one wonder what kind of “distraction” would be needed to coalesce a hodgepodge of people into an effective management team for the country. And who will suffer the most from this “distraction”?
Looks like Kellyanne is being set up to take a fall. How can she make that statement about Trump having “full confidence” in Flynn when only an hour later Sean Spicer contradicted that statement by saying the President was evaluating the situation? And Flynn announces his retirement hours later. This is three strikes against Kellyanne for making incorrect or improper statements in such a short time. Her open endorsement of Ivanka’s product line was totally stupid. Her blind loyalty to Trump makes her a liability.
Set up? I’m thinking if you gave that woman a single shot bb gun, a full safety course and a field of targets… she would still manage to break a neighbor’s window with it after that one shot ricochets off her own foot.
The blind loyalty of certain members of Congress makes them all liabilities.
bleedgreen, I don’t think anybody set her up. She set her own self up with her numerous attempts to present alternative facts.
Don’t fret. All is well. Market up, gold up and oil up. Another great day in America. Oh, illegals also on the run.
Trump….Draining his own swamp.
Exactly! This time, he’s actually keeping his promise!
Here is a possible “distraction”, it is very funny that these facts need to be pointed out by the BBC…and is there any need for all of us in Hawaii to be reminded that while everyone says NK can’t reach the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska are within easy strike distance of a medium range missile.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38958321
Yep, Trump is so distracted he hasn’t even responded to this North Korea problem. What no Tweets?
An investigation should be initiated and the wire tapped conversations be evaluated by congress and the judicial branch. If the conversation indicates that President Trump had asked or ordered (yet to be confirmed as NSA) Michael Flynn to discuss sanctions against Russia, then this would implicate President Trump. This could turn out to be Trump’s “watergate”. This is not over folks. Stay tuned.
DUMP TRUMP!!!!!!! He needs to go. Let’s make America great again.
Ther is more to this than Flynn. Why does Trump have so many ties to Russia– his campaign manager, his special campaign consultant, and Tillerson our Secretary of State whose former company has $ Billions locked up if sanctions against Russia continue. Also– what was the. Green Party candidate doing in Russia with Flynn and why did she say so many nice things about Russia?– was she set up to run and take votes from Clinton?
This is not what the country needs. Every day/ week there’s controversy in the Trumps administration further dividing the people’s confidence in the government. Maybe his ideals are good but his inexperience and selections of staff is sinking the country. This will make the country highly vulnerable to outside attacks, be it political, terrorist, or financial. This is not the change we need, we’re not coming closer together as a nation but harder division lines are being drawn.
cigaripo> Agree! This country doesn’t need all this chattering going on. But put the onus where it belongs. The DEMs, libs, and whatever else they have in cahoots need to quit being the distractions and obstructionists that they are. Let the pieces fall where they will fall for all of this is what’s making America vulnerable to outside influences that have a singular desire and that is the destruction of the USA. I look forward to the day when there is no more name calling, finger pointing and unqualified back seat drivers. Can’t we all collectively look at what is happening to our country and put our energy together for the common good? Why are we always at each others throat and trying to out second guess each other. Other than being an exercise in maintaining a fluid mind, I see very little value in having your side against my side. Have a nice day, everybody!!!!! I need to get my beauty sleep!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, what’s making america vulnerable to outside influences is the unstable egomaniac currently in the white house. He is too erratic to make sane decisions, especially when he refuses to listen to, and sometimes doesn’t even consult, advisors who know more than he does.
MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—Russian President Vladimir Putin is “starting to get concerned” that the puppets he installed in the executive branch of the U.S. government “might not be up to the task at hand,” sources confirmed on Tuesday.
For the best of the best analysis yet of the Flynn fiasco, see:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/putin-starting-to-wonder-if-his-puppets-are-smart-enough-to-pull-this-off?mbid=nl_021417%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=25164115&spMailingID=10431576&spUserID=MTMzMTgyNjUwMzc5S0&spJobID=1101153637&spReportId=MTEwMTE1MzYzNwS2
Keep in mind though, While he is a really fine writer, Andy Borowitz writes regular satirical columns for the New Yorker and they are identified as such. They are however, often very entertaining.
Ex-General Flynn is a TRAITOR and should for tried for treason with his friend, Mr. Snowden !!!
Fired by Obama. Forced to resign by Trump.
Failed by the policies (insubordination) laid out by the military – Irony : troops under his leadership that had to follow those guidelines did not apply to him.
Perhaps he would be better suited at Flynn Intelligence Group as he can walk to the beat of his own drum.
If you are told to leave, you’re fired.. You’re fired. You’re fired. Mr. Trump, this isn’t Apprentice.
semantics – in reality he was fired both times, it was his stupid actions that prompted his dismissal.