Senator John Thune was supposed to be among the lucky “leaders” dining with the President last night. That Trump® Steak must not have gone down well: South Dakota’s senior Senator is on the news today saying Americans “deserve an explanation” from his steak-hoster about Russian election-meddling and Russian meetings with Team Trump:
“I think that the American people do deserve a full explanation of what happened in all these various meetings,” he said in reply. “I think that the Intelligence Committee here in the Senate is looking into that. The Mueller special counsel is looking into that. I think we’re going to get those answers in due time, but I think that more is better. To me, the administration is served by getting everything out there and being as transparent as they possibly can. Because, this issue, in order for it to go away, I think that is the best way to just cleanse it, and get it out there, and let the American people decide.”
“More transparency is good,” he added.
“More transparent than they are now?” [CNN’s John] Berman asked.
“I think there has been a reluctance for whatever reason, I think, by the administration, in some cases, to get all the information out there, and I think they’re well served to do that, frankly,” Thune replied. “My guess is that they’ll probably find — and the intelligence committees and the others that have looked at this have not found any evidence of collusion to this point, and I think that the administration would be able to turn that page and move forward and focus on other things if they would get this issue behind them. And I think that that sort of transparency would enable that to happen” [Matt Shuham, “Thune: ‘There Has Been a Reluctance’ from Trump to Be Transparent on Russia,” Talking Points Memo, 2017.07.18].
Hmmm… John Thune showing spine against Donald Trump? Perhaps Thune thought last night’s steak (marinated in failure of the Senate health care bill) was the real nothing-burger.
I see what you did there, Senator. You say that, “The intelligence committees have not found any evidence of collusion to this point.” Robert Mueller isn’t on an intelligence committee. He’s heading a “special investigation”.
Robert Mueller has made no public comments since he was named to lead the investigation into Russian interference in last year’s election. Instead, he has quietly hired a team of elite Justice Department prosecutors.
Saying that no evidence has been found when the results of the investigation haven’t been released yet is misdirection, Senator.
What definition of collusion is Marlboro Barbie yacking about? Patently obvious through Jr Drumpf’s emails he knowingly met with the enemy to receive dirt on campaign opponent. He knew she was a Russian gov’t lawyer and whether he got the stuff promised is irrelevant. Taking the meeting showed intent to collude, actually showing up and having the meeting is collusion with a foreign state.
Maybe the steak was overcooked? The ketchup subpar? Kinda hard to tell where Republicans draw line nowadays. It might have been the water or one scoop of ice cream as well, but no doubt Thune will be flapping with the wind.
Collusion is merely the folder that holds the crimes …
~ “The text of the emails provide very clear evidence of participation in a scheme to involve the Russian government in federal election interference, in a form that is prohibited by federal criminal law.” explains Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel and current editor of the legal site Just Security.
~Jens David Ohlin, a law professor at Cornell University, is even blunter: “It’s a shocking admission of a criminal conspiracy.”
Remember, Chuck, you can’t over cook my steak. ;-)
Perhaps Thune’s words this morning have more to do with the fact that Trump called Thune and his colleagues “dopes” over dinner.
I would not be surprised if the Senator ends up backing walking his most recent comments on Trump, however. I think we all remember his hot, cold, and then hot support for Trump back in October of 2016 after the Hollywood Access tape came out….
Keep in mind, that this is the same Senator who said on June 26th of this year in a press release, in reference to the initial Senate health care bill, that the Senate version “….ensures those on Medicaid don’t have the rug pulled out from under the.” Then three days later, after final analysis of the CBO report on the bill, the CBO reported that the Senate version would actually cut Medicaid 35% by 2036…..
There certainly was collusion on McCTurtlecare taxcuts for the wealthy. Wingnuts colluded with a handful of other wingnuts to hide details from Congress and the People they are supposed to represent.
Thune needs to continue to show some backbone regarding concerns surrounding the Trump Administration or he needs to be replaced by someone who will.
Fair point, JKC—it appears we can’t rely on the words coming out of Thune’s mouth much more than we can assign lasting meaning to the noises Trump emits. But Thune is at least our guy. He lives here. We can keep trying to signal to him when he’s headed in the right direction, as he is now, saying Trump needs to come clean on Russia.
And if Thune won’t come back to the right side, I’m more than happy to work with David on replacing Thune in 2022. (Such a long wait!)
To be transparent would mean the lies would have to stop. That is a tall order since lying has become part of their DNA. A large percentage of what they say about trumpcare changes hourly. Thune and repubs cannot mention Obamacare without the use of the word “failing”.
Both the Kaiser Foundation and the governments HHS have recently reported that Obamacare is doing quite well despite the efforts of the repubs to cripple it. You would never hear Rounds or Thune mention these reports. Lying by omission is still lying and so much for tranparency.
But it is the “long wait,” which offers Thune the breathing room to give the appearance of backbone, however…
How about in March, when the media had to corner the Senator in a hallway at the Events Center in Sioux Falls, during the Summit League tournament, to get him to comment on the early days of the Trump presidency, but at that same event he was more than willing to sit down with a Midco sportscaster and talk about the history of basketball for 15 minutes plus….
Certainly, we can welcome rhetoric from the Senator which helps to box in Trump politically, but talk is cheap. The same thing could be said for Senators Graham and McCain too. I wish there was more action and less talk from those two as well….. It is not what they say, it is what they do, that matters and speaks loudly of their true political sincerity….
Remember when the GOP genuflected at the altar of Ronald Reagan. They are a mere shadow of themselves now. Thune, Rounds and Noem are ambivalent. Not even PP, Lee, Troy or Stace will question Trump and the Russian connection.
The drip, drip, drip continues on the Russian connection. Guessing all of the above would have been OK with Trump shooting someone on 5th Ave.
Holy cow—Trump couldn’t even be transparent about a second, undisclosed meeting at the G20 with Putin… and Trump relied solely on Putin’s translator.
ahh the dilemmas of power. speak up about the peoples medical care or criticize trump/Russia/stolen election. hmmm what to do? more photo-ops staring sternly into the distance. hilarious. Thune, trump, kim jung un, valid, mitch McConnell, Rupert Murdoch, Kochs, Mercers, Bannon. what a circus to be in the middle of…. Do something John!