Is the White House trying to hide something?

[robrecht]

Michael Flynn seems to have lied to Mike Pence about not discussing sanctions with the Russians during the transition. Reportedly the President knew about this lie from Sally Yates for nearly 3 weeks before 'firing' Flynn, 'though he sort of pretended not to know about this or specific press reports about it. Mike Pence seem to have lied about (or have been incompetent in?) not knowing during the transition about Michael Flynn's apparent conflict of interest as a foreign during the campaign, despite having been formally notified of this as head of the transition by Congressman Elijah Cummings, and the transition discussing this with Flynn's lawyers. John Dean, who knows something about presidential cover-ups, said over a week ago that the white house seems to be in cover-up mode. Most recently, the White House seems to have been interested in stopping Sally Yates from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, and when she was going to testify anyway, the hearing was cancelled. Coincidentally? Or does Sally Yates know something else?

Is the White House trying to hide something? I have tended not to believe that there was any really serious wrong-doing or criminal collusion of the Trump campaign with Russian attempts to hurt Clinton's reputation, but the White House does look like they are trying to hide something or at least distract attention away from other people's concerns. Or perhaps they are just terribly incompetent at media communications.

[Bill the Cat]

I visited the White House and did a public tour 2 years ago. Some of it was off limits to the public, so I guess the White House had something to hide...

[Mountain Man]

Is the White House trying to hide something?

Probably less than what the Obama White House has tried to hide.

[robrecht]

I visited the White House and did a public tour 2 years ago. Some of it was off limits to the public, so I guess the White House had something to hide...

Some people are taking this more seriously than I have:

“There’s no question there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes,” he told attendees.

“In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war,” added Mr. Cheney.

[robrecht]

Most recently, the White House seems to have been interested in stopping Sally Yates from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee[/URL], and when she was going to testify anyway, the hearing was cancelled. Coincidentally? Or does Sally Yates know something else? ...

Spicer clarified that the White House did not respond to Yates' lawyer's letter and therefore had no objection to her testifying. Still wondering why Nunes seems to have suspended the committee's investigation.

[Sparko]

Some people are taking this more seriously than I have:

“There’s no question there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes,” he told attendees.

“In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war,” added Mr. Cheney.

Right.

You know as well as I do, that if Clinton had won, all of this Russian nonsense would have gone away and been forgotten by the day after the election. The only reason it is still going on is desperation by the democrats who can't just let go and admit they lost.

[robrecht]

Right.

You know as well as I do, that if Clinton had won, all of this Russian nonsense would have gone away and been forgotten by the day after the election. The only reason it is still going on is desperation by the democrats who can't just let go and admit they lost.

That does not in any way explain former Vice-President Cheney's concern, does it?

[Sparko]

That does not in any way explain former Vice-President Cheney's concern, does it?

The word concern needs scare quotes around it. There. that explains it for ya.

[robrecht]

The word concern needs scare quotes around it. There. that explains it for ya.

So, are you saying that Cheney was not genuinely concerned about this?

[Sparko]

So, are you saying that Cheney was not genuinely concerned about this?

correct.

ETA - to be clear, I think that the WTimes is the one saying Cheney has concerns about it. I have no idea if Cheney actually does or not, since I have no access to the actual speech they are referring to and only have the news articles interpretation and selective quotes.

It smells to me like another exaggeration story to me, where they take selective quotes and then come to some dramatic conclusion.

[robrecht]

correct.

Watch the video here. He's obviously very serious, and neither he nor I are questioning the legitimacy of Trump's election so your theory that this is all just desperation on the part of Democrats who can't admit they lost is patently false.

[Bill the Cat]

Some people are taking this more seriously than I have:

“There’s no question there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes,” he told attendees.

“In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war,” added Mr. Cheney.

Cheney is wrong. Our voting process consists of individual citizens going to their designated polling location and casting a ballot for their electoral college representative to vote for President. There is no evidence that a single ballot was changed by Russians. Therefore, the propaganda campaign that supposedly originated from Russia didn't "interfere" with anything.

[Sparko]

Watch the video here. He's obviously very serious, and neither he nor I are questioning the legitimacy of Trump's election so your theory that this is all just desperation on the part of Democrats who can't admit they lost is patently false.

OK, but that still does not counter what I said earlier about how all this would be non-news if Clinton had been elected. It keeps being brought up and trying to link Trump to the Russians because the democrats don't want to admit defeat. If Clinton had won, they would have said "we are going to investigate this Russian thing" and you would have never heard a peep after that.

[robrecht]

Cheney is wrong. Our voting process consists of individual citizens going to their designated polling location and casting a ballot for their electoral college representative to vote for President. There is no evidence that a single ballot was changed by Russians. Therefore, the propaganda campaign that supposedly originated from Russia didn't "interfere" with anything.

He may be wrong, and I may have been right not to think too much about Trump's supposed collusion with Russian attempts to harm Clinton, but Cheney is not a Democrat. And the White House (and Nunes) do seem to be really bad at talking to the press in a straightforward way.

[robrecht]

OK, but that still does not counter what I said earlier about how all this would be non-news if Clinton had been elected. It keeps being brought up and trying to link Trump to the Russians because the democrats don't want to admit defeat. If Clinton had won, they would have said "we are going to investigate this Russian thing" and you would have never heard a peep after that.

I am not trying to counter that the Democrats will play politics with this. And I have no idea if the White House might be trying to hide something here or what that might be, but they are not very good at this, are they?