Donald J. Trump at a campaign event on Monday. A spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Wednesday that there were no plans to meet with Mr. Trump in the near future. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
Washington Post: Moscow had contacts with Trump team during campaign, Russian diplomat says
MOSCOW — Russian government officials had contacts with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, in a disclosure that could reopen scrutiny over the Kremlin’s role in the president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton.
Facing questions about his ties to Moscow because of statements interpreted as lauding Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump repeatedly denied having any contact with the Russian government.
After the latest statement by the Russian diplomat, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied that there were interactions between Russia and the Trump team before Tuesday’s election.
“The campaign had no contact with Russian officials,” she said in an email.
But Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in an interview with the state-run Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with the Trump team.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The Russian Foreign Ministry is back-tracking on this story .... saying that these meetings were limited to confirming or clarifying news stories. Still .... I would like to know who in the Trump team were meeting these officials.
More News On Reports That The Kremlin Was In Touch With The Trump Team During The Election
Russia says it was in touch with Trump's campaign during election -- Reuters
Russia: "There were contacts" with Donald Trump's campaign before election -- CBS/AP
Russia Says Its Officials Were in Contact With Trump Campaign -- VOA
Russian deputy foreign minister says Moscow was in contact with the Trump campaign -- Yahoo News
Report: Trump's team had contacts with Moscow during campaign -- Politico
Russia says it has been in touch with Donald Trump’s entourage during the campaign -- Quartz
2 comments:
Red meat for the American Left. This story will be reported as fact and spread like wild fire.
/and then Hillary can be president after all
Whether one likes the Russian leadership or does not like the Russian leadership there seems no denying that these people are VERY, VERY smart. It amazes me that most were caught completely off balance and stunned by a Trump victory.
While I initially expected a Trump blowout when he got the nomination and back tracked somewhat from that prediction as certain assumptions did not materialize going into election day I was expecting the election, at least in the Electoral College, to be VERY, VERY close. In fact, I thought it very possible we might not know the result until weeks from now if team Clinton lost as things would be tied up with recounts, court challenges etc. The pundits expected a blowout by team Clinton!!
If I can figure this stuff out, why couldn't the pundits or certain foreign leaders? I suspect it was a case of ideology making otherwise smart people stupid. The Russian leadership, as among the world's most cunning people, likely would not have allowed themselves to be rendered stupid by ideology. As such, they would have had a plan in place in the event of a Trump victory.
To the Russians, Mrs. Clinton is a known quantity. Everything they need to know about her is likely already known. Furthermore it is likely they have the emails from Mrs. Clinton's private server and Ms. Abedin's laptop to fill in the gaps of anything they don't know.
Prior to his becoming a serious candidate for POTUS Mr. Trump would not have been a known quantity to the Russians. Since they acknowledged a real possibility of his victory, it is highly likely that they would to try and learn more about the man they could be dealing with as POTUS after the election. This is the type of thing smart people do. They try and gather information, learn as much as they can, and from this formulate strategies for dealing with a given situation.
So, of course there were contacts between team Trump and top Russian officials. Additionally team Trump being new at this sort of thing and having a private sector business background will want to try and gather information about the Russians as this is a key country they would have to deal with. This is the type of thing business personnel do. They seek to gather information, study it, try and learn, and from this formulate strategies for dealing with a particular situation. Essentially both parties would have a vested interest in trying to establish contacts.
The media hysteria on this kind of thing is beyond the pale ridiculous. By channeling team Clinton and going bonkers over behavior that would be experiential common sense they show they cannot be trusted and by behaving in this way Mrs. Clinton, in this situation alone, absent anything else demonstrated her unfitness to lead.
As to who the contacts in team Trump may have been, I would suspect Paul Manafort, Carter Page, or possibly General Michael Flynn. In this type of situation, it is going to make sense try and select team members who have relations with the other party that they trust in order to facilitate contacts. Furthermore it would seem experiential common sense that the Russian leadership will want to verify the veracity of the many news reports about team Trump. After all it makes sense to try and know as much as you can about the party you may be dealing with.
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