WTF? Dems no longer pursuing records of Trump-Putin meetings

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Ben Siegel
@bensiegel
Dems no longer pursuing records of Trump-Putin meetings

“The Biden administration is looking forward, not back,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks told ABC News.

- https://abcn.ws/35EB75r via @ABC

Still a summit secret: What happened in Helsinki between Putin and Trump?
Democrats are no longer pursuing what happened in private meetings at the 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
abcnews.go.com
3:43 AM · Jun 16, 2021

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/summit-secret-happened-helsinki-putin-trump/story?id=78273344

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, congressional Democrats said they are no longer seeking records of former President Donald Trump’s private meetings with the Russian leader, despite previous concerns Trump tried to conceal details of their conversations.

"The Biden administration is looking forward, not back," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., whose panel once considered subpoenaing Trump’s interpreter to testify about his July 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, where only an American interpreter was also present.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting in Hel...
From 2017 to 2019, amid former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, Democrats raised questions about Trump’s conversations with Putin, especially after Trump said in Helsinki, standing next to Putin, that he believed his 2017 denial of election interference, over the findings of U.S. intelligence.

Similar questions were raised after the disclosure of an unplanned conversation with Putin during a G-20 dinner in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019 during which Trump was not accompanied by an interpreter.

*snip*

[Voltaire2]

1. the explainers will arrive shortly

meanwhile, I agree, what the fuckity fuck.

[ansible]

32. And they'll furiously report and delete anyone daring to make a criticism

[gratuitous]

2. Stubbornly. Learning. Nothing.

This is infuriating.

[edhopper]

3. Allowing what that man did to stay in the dark

will only embolden the next Trump (and the next GOP President will be a Trump) to do worse.

[JT45242]

4. No consequences ... no changes

If Biden's folks don't start pursuing this stuff and prosecuting all who committed crimes to the full extent of the law, then the Rethuglicans will know that there are, as has been the case since at least the 1968 election, no consequences for Rethiglicans for any crime -- no matter how heinous -- not Nixon tanking the peace talks, not Reagan and Bush paying the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election, not Billy Barr's cover up of the Bush adminsitration crimes, not for lying about WMD in W and nothing for anyone of consequence in the tRump clan.

There is no deterrent because they ALWAYS get away with everything because we have taken the HIGH ROAD and allowed them to get more bold in their crimes.

SMH in disgust. This is why the American dynastic circle is beginning to close and fall and the great experiment in democracy may shatter soon as well.

[dalton99a]

8. +1. Nobody even tried to subpoena the interpreter.

The interpreter knows what was said and agreed to.

[triron]

25. What a royal screwup. How can they be so incredibly stupid!?

[dalton99a]

5. "Nothing happened. It's all good. Gotta move on, folks"

Naive.

Clueless.

Disgusting.

[GoCubsGo]

6. There likely are no records to pursue.

Last edited Wed Jun 16, 2021, 01:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Can't investigate things that don't exist. Nobody who was present in those meetings recorded what was said. Even the interpreters were not allowed to take notes. And, that's when Trump was allowed to/willing to bring in his own interpreter. This all strikes me as moving on from an act of futility.

[pandr32]

22. +1

[JoeOtterbein]

7. "The Biden administration is looking forward, not back,"...

...That is exactly the words I was terrified of hearing from this WH.

We went down that road in Obama's and we lost big in the next elections.

Stupid move then, even worse now.

[RegularJam]

9. Dems to stop looking for records that don't exist.

Hair on fire crowd on the way to tell us why we must waste resources on something that probably doesn't exist or democracy is dead.

Pretty obvious who has been on pins and needles waiting for their moment to pounce on Democrats. Even making up fake crap and acting like the world is coming to an end. Most doing so from their expensive computer or phone, while sitting in the AC, after a great weekend spent out with friends. Then back to the computer to remind you your world is coming to an end.

It's become hard to not simply laugh at all of these bullshit attacks on progressives and democrats. Obvious is obvious.

[Fullduplexxx]

13. Key word in your assumption... probably

[RegularJam]

16. How many more resources would you like to expend looking in to...

Something we agree probably doesn't exist.

This line of attack is one of the biggest jokes I've seen.

[Voltaire2]

30. the proposal was to subpoena the interpreters

if they ain't brain dead, their recollections exist.

[RegularJam]

35. It appears the whole idea is dead.

Thankfully. We need to use our resources wisely. Stop chasing dead ends.

Putin speaks English. He and Donald have talked in private without interpreters.

[JohnSJ]

15. It is pretty naive for anyone to assume that what transpired in trump's meetings with putin, is

being ignored.

Because it is NOT being related to the public does not mean nothing is being done regarding about that

[Voltaire2]

34. the issue is not about making the details public

the issue is that the administration and congressional democrats have stated that they will not investigate the private meeting further, and in particular will not subpoena the interpreters that were present.

This is the problem:

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, congressional Democrats said they are no longer seeking records of former President Donald Trump’s private meetings with the Russian leader, despite previous concerns Trump tried to conceal details of their conversations.

"The Biden administration is looking forward, not back," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., whose panel once considered subpoenaing Trump’s interpreter to testify about his July 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, where only an American interpreter was also present.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/summit-secret-happened-helsinki-putin-trump/story?id=78273344

[JohnSJ]

36. You don't think it isn't being pursued? I don't care what Meeks said, I don't think it is being

ignored

[triron]

26. How do you know what's out there if you don't do something!?

Yeah, let's just bury our heads in the sand.

[Autumn]

10. No accountanility has always brought us problems down the line.

[grumpyduck]

11. Is it even remotely possible

that this announcement has to do with optics ahead of Biden's meeting with Putin?

The timing seems to be a bit coincidental here.

[StarfishSaver]

28. No.

Because it's impossible that the Biden team isn't all that hepped up about letting Putin know they have ways of knowing exactly what was said in that meeting and they probably already know just what was said.

Because if the folks on DU don't know about it, it couldn't be happening ...

[JohnSJ]

37. What? You mean people on the the security committee in Congress, and the Biden administration

aren't keeping DU in the loop?

[StarfishSaver]

40. It's an outrage!

[JohnSJ]

41. LOL

[JohnSJ]

12. Anyone who believes that what transpired in Helsinki and Japan is not being pursued, I believe

is quite naive.

[-misanthroptimist]

14. How bad could it have been?

I mean, it's not like Russia has attacked our infrastructure, interfered with and undermined our elections, murdered people in allied countries, or invaded our friends.

Oh, wait.

[samsingh]

17. there are never consequences for repug treachery

and it is the laziest, stupidest comment about looking forward, not backwards. Every criminal says that.

[triron]

27. Totally agree.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

18. Not cool, we have to follow the Trump crap all the way down the rabbit hole

not what you want to do, but what you have to do !

No more of this just looking forward without checking out what happened the last 4 years.

[PortTack]

19. Biden now has access to all of the phone conversations frump and Putin had

Maybe they feel like they have all they need

https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-has-access-all-trump-putin-call-memos-previously-hidden2021-2

Can those that are please stop bashing our President...geez!!

[Voltaire2]

21. this was an in-person meeting.

Last edited Wed Jun 16, 2021, 03:57 PM - Edit history (1)

By not pursuing this they are greenlighting future presidents conducting private negotiations with foreign leaders.

[PortTack]

24. I read the thread! I know that...was commenting on the fact that if they are looking for

Conspiracy and collusion they may already have it in those phone recordings

Geez!!

[jonstl08]

20. Maybe a reason

Maybe they feel this might be a national security issue. If they are successful then future Presidents would be forced to reveal what was told to foreign leaders and maybe also with others.

PS I disagree with their stance and should know what was said. Maybe in closed hearing on the intelligence committees.

[Voltaire2]

23. past presidents have recorded minutes of these sort of meetings.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said if the Post's report is accurate, Trump "broke all protocol."

"The American government does not know what was discussed between Trump and Vladimir Putin in that, frankly, pathetic, embarrassing encounter where Trump was kowtowing on the world stage to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki," Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union."

The issue is not making the meeting details public.

[StarfishSaver]

29. Because it's not possible

that Biden's intelligence people don't have all kinds of ways to find out what transpired in that meeting and probably already know exactly what was said that day ... Or that they think it's probably not a good idea for Putin to know that they know.

[arthritisR_US]

31. The business of no accountability is bullshit and has

to stop. Way to give licence to future autocrats 😡

[FelineOverlord]

33. WTF? Dems no longer pursuing records of Trump-Putin meetings

Didn’t they demand the transcript from the interpreter or something like that? I’ll bet the Trump regime destroyed all the records!

[sarcasmo]

38. The next Autocrat will be smarter and finish Democracy.

[jalan48]

39. Ah, the ole "Looking forward not backward" routine. How many more times are we going to hear this?

[uponit7771]

42. Other than disconnected phraseology this is expected, anyone think Putin's Whore would keep

... records or anything else in regards to those meetings and not burn them or do something else janky?

[Johonny]

43. I assume the CIA knows what the Russian said about those meeting already

And Biden now has been briefed on it. No one in the current government believes Trump's version of anything so his records are likely worthless.

[StarfishSaver]

44. Exactly

They probably already know exactly what was said in every meeting. That's what they do.

Something they don't do is go around broadcasting to the world everything they know and how they know it.

I can't believe people are so naive as to think that if the general public doesn't know about it, nothing's being done.