Hey, i don’t usually just go all tweets in the pundit round-up but today…
This is one of those days when it turns out everything we thought about Trump turns out to be true.
Oppo research going back to August on Donald Trump’s business ties leads to this:
BuzzFeed:
A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks.
The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians. CNN reported Tuesday that a two-page synopsis of the report was given to President Barack Obama and Trump.
Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government.
Watch the full report from CNN yesterday:
WaPo:
A senior U.S. official with access to the document said that the allegations were presented at least in part to underscore that Russia had embarrassing information on both major candidates, but only released material that might harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — a reflection of Russian motivation that bolstered U.S. spy agencies’ conclusion that Moscow sought to help Trump win.
The inclusion of such unsubstantiated allegations in the election report, a development first reported Tuesday by CNN, adds a disturbing new dimension to existing concerns about Russia’s efforts to undermine American democracy.
If true, the information suggests that Moscow has assembled damaging information — known in espionage circles by the Russian term “kompromat” — that conceivably could be used to coerce the next occupant of the White House. The claims were presented in a two-page summary attached to the full report, an addendum that also included allegations of ongoing contact between members of Trump’s inner circle and representatives of Moscow.
If you have to ask, chances are you don’t want to know. I mean, it would be undignified. Someone with gravitas would never! It would be...
And also...
Politico:
President-elect Donald Trump has asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a major source of disproved theories imputing harm to vaccines, to chair a “commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity,” Kennedy told reporters after a meeting in Trump Tower on Tuesday.
Kennedy, who said he accepted the assignment, has been insisting for over a decade that traces of mercury in a preservative formerly used in childhood vaccines caused a massive increase in autism diagnoses. He has clung to the theory despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.
Later in the day, however, Trump appeared to be backing off Kennedy’s report. In a statement released by the transition team, Trump said he “enjoyed his discussion” with Kennedy and was “exploring the possibility of forming a committee on Autism, which affects many families; however no decisions have been made at this time.”
Kennedy and other vaccine skeptics have found a welcoming audience in Trump, who has repeatedly stated the belief that vaccines cause autism.
WaPo:
As honeymoons go, Donald Trump’s wasn’t much to write home about. He was voted in as the most unpopular president-elect in modern history and got slightly less unpopular in the weeks that followed, as the goodwill flowed. Even then, though, he clearly remained the most unpopular president-elect in modern history. Again, that was the honeymoon.
And now it’s over.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University suggests that Trump has reverted to his pre-election standing, with Americans having major concerns about his temperament and the direction in which his presidency will lead the country. Trump’s continued controversies seem to have put him right back where he was before he won the election.
Quinnipiac is the first high-quality pollster to poll on Trump twice since the election. And while its poll in late November showed his favorable rating rising from 34 percent to 44 percent, that number has dropped back to 37 percent, which is about where it stood for much of the campaign. That’s tied for Trump’s worst favorable rating in a poll since his election. And a majority — 51 percent — now have an unfavorable view of him.
and finally