Current Events > Lol, GOPers deny conversation happen, then get told recording exists

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016 exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the U.S. Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.
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The House leadership has so far stood by the White House as it has lurched from one crisis to another, much of the turmoil fueled by contacts between Trump or his associates with Russia.

House Republican leaders have so far resisted calls for the appointment of an independent commission or a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference, though pressure has been mounting on them to do so after Trump’s firing of FBI director James B. Comey and the disclosure that the president shared intelligence with Russian diplomats.

Evan McMullin, who in his role as policy director to the House Republican Conference participated in the June 15 conversation, said: “It’s true that Majority Leader McCarthy said that he thought candidate Trump was on the Kremlin’s payroll. Speaker Ryan was concerned about that leaking.”

McMullin ran for president last year as an independent and has been a vocal critic of Trump.

When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.”

After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.”

“This was a failed attempt at humor,” Sparks said.

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Antifar posted...

“This was a failed attempt at leadership,” Sparks said.

yes, yes it was
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It was just a prank, bro!
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Seems like a joke to me
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Ah good, the GOP is burning down.
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lalala not listening
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Ah good, the GOP is burning down.

its amazing: they have control of congress just won a mandate election and they sitll manage to blow it.

i was just hearing today how alot of republicans are struggling in upcoming mid-term elections and god knows what else goes down between now and 2020.

they could have really done something good with all this control, but they had to elect Trump...
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So can we actually hear this recording? It would make the rumors that Ryan is in bed with the Russians some credence.
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E32005 posted...

just won a mandate election

That election was a lot of things, but it certainly wasn't a mandate. They didn't even win a plurality of the vote.
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Well really we can blame Trump and should blame him for a lot of this shit from his presidency, but the fucking GOP are just proving how terrible they are by sitting around watching, doing nothing. I mean it's been talked about for years that they are fucked up and simply want power, nice to see them have to shoulder some of the burden they created.
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E32005 posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

Ah good, the GOP is burning down.

its amazing: they have control of congress just won a mandate election and they sitll manage to blow it.

i was just hearing today how alot of republicans are struggling in upcoming mid-term elections and god knows what else goes down between now and 2020.

they could have really done something good with all this control, but they had to elect Trump...

I think Trump only sped up the inevitable. People would be furious with the GOP regardless with repeal and replace ACA and net neutrality stuff. They might manage to not completely imploded, but it wouldn't prevent a future Trump candidate from getting elect.
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byron posted...

But her emails

buttery males
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Antifar posted...

“who posted” Sparks said.

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E32005 posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

Ah good, the GOP is burning down.

its amazing: they have control of congress just won a mandate election and they sitll manage to blow it.

i was just hearing today how alot of republicans are struggling in upcoming mid-term elections and god knows what else goes down between now and 2020.

they could have really done something good with all this control, but they had to elect Trump...

What did Obama do his first 2 years with complete control? Absolutely jack shit.
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http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/elmo-tl_dr.gif
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voldothegr8 posted...

What did Obama do his first 2 years with complete control? Absolutely jack shit.

Pass a healthcare law, for one
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Antifar posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

What did Obama do his first 2 years with complete control? Absolutely jack shit.

Pass a healthcare law, for one

Not his first 2 years, and it was deemed unconstitutional until the tax loophole.
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voldothegr8 posted...

Not his first 2 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010

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Ryan is such a spineless puddle of diarrhea
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Read my sig.
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Davjat posted...

Read my sig.

0/10
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ASithLord7 posted...

Davjat posted...

Read my sig.

0/10

Did you get "the joke"?
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Antifar posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

Not his first 2 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010

Then deemed unconstitutional until the tax loophole in 2012.
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You're moving the goalposts here
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Also I can't believe this still needs to be posted, but he did not have complete control for 2 years. Plus our system is purposefully designed to allow a vocal minority to slow everything to a crawl. So you really need New Deal level majorities or lockstep party loyalty and smaller majorities to do big stuff.
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