Earlier today, president Obama ordered a Russia Hacking Claim Probe.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a friend and backer of Hillary Clinton, heads up Obama’s witch hunt.
Barack Obama has ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct a “full review” of alleged Russian hacking into this year’s election and to issue a report before he leaves office next month.
Lisa Monaco, White House counter-terrorism adviser, said that the review, which would be sent to Congress but which might not be made public, would look at both what happened during the election and would consider “some after-action”.
The review comes as calls for congressional probes into the hacking of the election are increasing.
The growing rumblings over Russia’s role in the election could set up an early confrontation between Congress and the incoming Trump administration, which has called for closer ties with Moscow.
Although the US intelligence community issued a rare public statement in October claiming that Russia had been responsible for the hacks on Democratic politicians and political committees, president-elect Donald Trump has continued to cast doubt on Russia’s role in the hacking.
In an interview with Time magazine this week, he said that he did not believe that Russia had interfered in the election. “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people. Sources or even individuals,” Mr Trump said.
Over the course of the summer, WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and from John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Some Democrats have suggested that the controversies and bad publicity generated by the emails dumps — which only affected their party — contributed to Mr Trump’s victory in the election.
Some Republicans are also pushing for a probe into Russia’s election role, led by Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain. “It’s pretty clear to me that WikiLeaks was designed to hurt Clinton and it could be us tomorrow,” Mr Graham told CNN on Wednesday.
For the more hawkish Senate Republicans such as Mr Graham, the issue of hacking the election could become part of a broader battle with the new president over his approach to Russia, given Mr Trump’s desire to “get along better” with Moscow.
“I’m going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia,” Mr Graham said. “I want [Russian president Vladimir] Putin personally to pay a price.”
Lindsey Graham a Hillary Backer
Just so you know why Lindsey Graham is so upset at Russia, he was a big Hillary fan.
For details, please consider praise for Hillary as noted in Correct the Record .
Here are some notes, going to the actual source, when links provided.
Lindsey Graham in New York Times June 27, 2012: Rock-Star Diplomat
“I think she’s represented our nation well,” Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, who as a member of the House served as one of 13 managers in the 1998 impeachment trial of Clinton’s husband, told me in an interview in his Senate office. “She is extremely well respected throughout the world, handles herself in a very classy way and has a work ethic second to none.”
When Tripoli fell in August and Qaddafi was killed in October, some of the same officials complained that she, not the president, was getting too large a share of the public credit. “Libya was a good showcase into who she is,” Lindsey Graham told me. “I said at one time during this debate, Thank God for strong women.”
Lindsey Graham in Fox New, May 28, 2007
Fox News: KASICH: “Bay — Bay, you’ve got — you got John McCain who says, and I quote, ‘I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.’ Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican, says, ‘She’s smart, prepared, serious.’ John Warner, sort of the dean of the United States Senate, Republican, conservative, says she has a remarkable core of inner strength. These are people who have worked with her for seven years.” [Fox News, 5/28/07]
Lindsey Graham September 15, 2011: speech at Council on Foreign Relations
Lindsey Graham: “Secretary Clinton is a great choice to be our secretary of state.” In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2011, Senator Lindsey Graham stated: “Leon Panetta was an outstanding choice. Let me be bipartisan here for a moment. This is an outstanding national security team put together by President Obama. I hope he will listen to them. Secretary Clinton is a great choice to be our secretary of state; Leon Panetta, great follow on from Secretary Gates; General Petraeus, CIA director. Good national security team.” [Sen. Graham speech at Council on Foreign Relations, 9/15/11]
Graham and Clinton Friends
Lindsey Graham on Hillary Clinton: “We have become, actually, good friends.” “Graham quipped that his relationship with Clinton is a good example of that. ‘We have become, actually, good friends. And that was a surprise to both of us,’ he said.” [Voice of America, 2/3/07]
Lindsey Graham Proud to Be On Stage With Hillary
Lindsey Graham on Hillary Clinton: “[I] share the stage with her – I consider that a compliment.” “Over the last few years, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Hillary Clinton have become a Capitol Hill odd couple, working across party lines on issues ranging from their mutual support for invading Iraq to their shared concern over vanishing manufacturing jobs and inadequate health care for military reservists… Graham said the two of them often come at problems from different directions, but share an interest in important policy issues. ‘Certainly, she’s a national figure, and to share the stage with her – I consider that a compliment,’ he said. ‘We’ll probably have totally different agendas that we think are best for the country, but the point is to speak boldly about problems that require bipartisanship and solutions that are essential to us surviving as a country in the 21st century.’” [The State, 1/28/07]
The above featured in Correct the Record, the following snip from the Weekly Standard on July 3, 2016 wasn’t.
Lindesy Graham: “When it comes to Syria, and Trump says it’s okay for Assad to stay, it tells me he has no idea what that means for the region. Israel is in threat from Iran. Iran is arming Hezbollah with precision-guided missiles. The trip to Israel was very unnerving to say the least. So, the Syrian civil war is having an effect throughout the region. Mr. Trump, when you said Assad should stay, you need to rethink that. As to Secretary Clinton, she says wants a no fly zone in Syria. That’s a great step in the great direction.”
It’s time to get rid of Lindsey Graham.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Hillary Clinton: The Neocon in Democrat’s Clothing
She’s a neoliberal which is not too awfully different from a neoconservative.
Lindsey Graham is a tool of the Masters of the Universe: Private Central Bankers. He appears to do or say anything required of him by his puppet masters.
Heck I called his office once to complain about the guy. His aid quickly started lecturing me about what I ought to believe. This guy thinks nothing of the peons. Only what he can do to climb the banker servants ladder.
Warmonger Lindsey Graham needs to be appointed Ambassador to Antarctica….
No, Libya.
Its good to know Obama will be leaving office.
I second your proposal, Mish, but I’d like to add loopy John McCain to that list as well.
But where is the candidate that can overcome the financial and organizational resources of these entrenched politicians. McCain was just re elected. There was no competent opposition even after years of negative opinions about McCain and the need to get him out of office. Term limits is needed.
Lindsey has a history of peddling fake news.
Back around 2006 Graham and his good buddy McCain were in a staged photo op shopping the street merchants in Baghdad to show things were A-OK in Iraq.
Of course, it later came out that the street was locked down and a company of troops were on the rooftops to make sure peace held … at least till the media went away …
The public is desensitized to Al-CIA-da and ISIS so they’re transitioning to the Russkies and China. As is the war on crack cocaine. I’ve noticed the switch to heroin lately. Who can’t hate heroin.
I think you’re onto something there.
People are tired of the endless, unwinnable “War on Terror”.
We need identify a new “threat-enemy”.
Russia will do nicely.
Yeah, anything that disproves the corrupt status quo’s captured mainstream media’s narrative and disrupts their former “kingmaker” status is due to “the Russians.” The continued prevalence of this obviously garbage claim in the MSM and on every popular millennial-watched show on Comedy Central and the broadcast networks simply shows how very easily the majority willfully ignorant population in this country can be manipulated by DOMESTIC sources of “fake news” and “propaganda.”
“The banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” – Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, in 2009
Drain the swamp? Here are the people either currently working for Goldman Sachs (GS) or having worked for them in the past whom Trump has already named to work with him:
National Economic Council Director: GS COO Gary Cohn
Treasury Secretary: Steven Mnuchin
Senior advisor: Steve Bannon
Top transition advisor: Anthony Scaramucci
Prior to the Iowa caucuses Trump repeatedly attacked Ted Cruz for his connections with Goldman Sachs.
Also, from one of those “fake news” web sites, about that other “Change you can believe in” president:
“The Most Important WikiLeak” – How a Citigroup Email Built The Obama Cabinet
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/most-important-wikileak-how-wall-street-built-obama-cabinet
The email in question was even sent from Froman’s Citibank email address (rookie!) and includes “A list of African American, Latino and Asian American candidates, broken down by Cabinet/Deputy and Under/Assistant/Deputy Assistant level, plus a list of Native American, Arab/Muslim American and Disabled American candidates.”
Apparently Obama wasn’t as worried about placing women in senior-level positions but Froman decided to offer up some suggestions anyway.
“While you did not ask for this, I prepared and attached a similar document on women.” Froman even went ahead and “scoped out” which people should be appointed to which cabinet positions.
“At the risk of being presumptuous, I also scoped out how the Cabinet-level appointments might be put together, probability-weighting the likelihood of appointing a diverse candidate for each position (given one view of the short list) and coming up with a straw man distribution.”
***The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money.*** It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Peter Orszag for the Office of Management and Budget, Arne Duncan for Education, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs, Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes for the Domestic Policy Council, and more. For the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.
This was October 6. The election was November 4. ***And yet Froman, an executive at Citigroup, which would ultimately become the recipient of the largest bailout from the federal government during the financial crisis, had mapped out virtually the entire Obama cabinet, a month before votes were counted.*** And according to the Froman/Podesta emails, lists were floating around even before that.
The rhetoric is getting outright childish or scary. Can we imagine a Russian senator threatening the US president personally?
Yeah and what’s funny is the U.S. track record in “interfering with elections” and outright incitement of violent coups in other countries. But hack into poorly protected computers to release the emails of OUR pols to reveal the inherent corruption and, oh, that is just so verboten! I hope at least some Americans are seeing this for what it is, but the butt-hurt Clinton supporters, their media lapdogs, and RINOs aren’t making it easy.
The US probably has the most extensive cyber operations, yet it has become a regular ritual to blame others for the same thing. If the Russian amateurs run out of ideas, where do they go for inspiration?
The same for propaganda. Only this time, it is not working like in the old days.
Tucker Carlson on Fox News ripped Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) a new one after Schiff accused Carlson of being in bed with Putin’s government. lol. I thought Schiff was going to cry on the air at the end of the segment. It was hilarious to watch.
How could any American with a straight face accuse Russia of foul play after we’ve attacked nation after nation without international consent and fomented wars that have taken the lives of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of innocent civilians?
Lindsay Graham is an embarrassment to the GOP and to the country. Even if I were gay I’d disown him.
“Lindsay Graham is an embarrassment to the GOP and to the country.”
Remember the neocon RINOs in 2018!
Ha! If Trump had lost, you guys would be blaming Russia, crooked machines and everything else in sight. Whew.
Yes, everyone remembers the riots and Russian-hacker blaming after Obama won. Twice.
You obviously have no problem at all with Russia interferring in our elections. Those of us who love America do. They also need to go after Julian Assange and investigate the FBI director’s interference in the election. Your attempt to brush all of this aside simply because Graham once spoke favorably about Hillary Clinton is pathetic.
The Clintons and their fans are blaming Russia only because Russia didn’t contribute to the dirty Clinton Foundation Fund.
Had Vlad dropped a couple mil into the CFF Hillary and Billary wouldn’t say sh%$ if they had a mouthful of it.
Arthur the only confirmed hackers during the elections so far is homeland security. This administration does not have proof of anything else period. Quit drinking the media cool aid.
I am more worried about what homeland did in other states during the election as the Wisconsin count was ended early because voter fraud was rampant in that state and the count was giving Trump even more votes.
We should be talking about our own government trying to hack elections and stop worrying about sore losers pointing fingers. Russia is not the monster in this for a change.
As I sat around the table with my coffee club, a good friend that worked for NASA and I served in two wars. He stated he loves the USA government but now it was sad Russia had more credibility then our government. He could not describe it better then how I feel right now. I love this country but many people are being duped and need to look at our government, especially when we have a confirmed story about our government trying to hack the Georgia election sites. That is what really scares me.
“You obviously have no problem at all with Russia interferring in our elections. Those of us who love America do.”
Arthur, Obama interfered in Brexit. The Democratic Party and mainstream media interfered in our election. Those are the people who should be investigated.
Even if Putin had rigged the US system to get himself elected POTUS, I doubt he could do as much damage as the cultural marxist democrats have done.
I have no problem with the truth about anything coming out, no matter where it comes from.
What hypocrisy. The US tries to hack China and Russia just as much as they try to hack America. If they would spend as much time protecting assets instead of politicizing hacks, America would be better served.
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Meanwhile… there is trouble in paradise.
I wonder if Trump intends to FIRE his bizarre illogical appointments… or if this is his way of firing Americans who voted for him.
” Trump Takes Heat From Breitbart Over Labor Secretary Pick
Donald Trump is taking heat from his right flank over his labor secretary pick, a CEO known for pro-immigration views that run in direct contradiction with a key policy of the president-elect.
Breitbart News on Thursday excoriated Trump for tasking fast food CEO Andy Puzder to run the Department of Labor, accusing the president-elect of putting foreign labor ahead of American workers. Trump’s senior adviser, Steve Bannon, was CEO of the conservative news website before leading the Republican’s campaign operation. ”
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-takes-heat-breitbart-over-labor-secretary-pick-n694136
” Trump Expected to Tap Labor Secretary Who Prefers Foreign Labor to American Workers
President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name as his Labor Secretary fast food executive Andy Puzder, who stands diametrically opposed to Trump’s signature issues on trade and immigration — which won him the election. ”
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/12/08/trump-expected-to-tap-labor-secretary-who-prefers-foreign-labor-to-american-workers/
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Graham, Clinton & McCain – War loving as a career.