From way back in July, 2016…
Q. What has Trump said about his connections to Russia?
A. Trump has said he has no ties. At a news conference Wednesday, he said “I have nothing to do with Russia,” indicating he has never met Russian President Vladimir Putin. A day earlier, he tweeted “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.”
… and, yet —
Q: What about investments from Russia in Trump’s businesses?
A. There is strong evidence that Trump’s businesses have received significant funding from Russian investors. Most notably, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. made that very claim at a real estate conference in New York in 2008, saying “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” Donald Trump Jr. added, “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
Take your pick.
… and, about that whopper that Vice President Mike Pence — ‘Indiana Death Mask’ and Trump Transition Team manager — was “set up” and “deceived” by disgraced and fired National Security Advisor Mike Flynn concerning his unregistered lobbying for Turkey and contacts with the Russian Ambassador and Vladimir Putin, there’s this:
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Vice President Mike Pence said he was not aware either and that he only first heard about it as reports surfaced Thursday that Flynn had registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department earlier this week. [...]
"Hearing that story today was the first I'd heard of it," Pence said, adding that he "fully" supported "the decision that President Trump made to ask for General Flynn's resignation." [...]
Except that…
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent Pence a letter on November 18 requesting more information about the potential conflicts of interest posed by Flynn's lobbying work.
Cummings sent the letter four days after both The Daily Caller and Politico reported that Flynn's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group Inc., had been hired to lobby for Turkish interests.
"Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government's interests," Cummings wrote. [...]
“Lt. Gen. Flynn's General Counsel and Principal, Robert Kelley, confirmed that they were hired by a foreign company to lobby for Turkish interests… When asked whether the firm had been hired because of Lt. Gen. Flynn's close ties to President-elect Trump, Mr. Kelley responded, 'I hope so.'"
Meanwhile, the ‘mainstream’ “press” — with a handful of rare exceptions, led by the likes of Rachel Maddow and a couple of her MSNBC colleagues — continues its slow-motion conga line, circling mechanically around The Pink Prez and his nature preserve of varied miscreants, feeding the sleepy, delusional narrative that he (and they) are not really developmentally-arrested, acting-out personality disorders teetering on the ragged edge of violent detonation.
A frightening reality emerges…
America DESERVES what it’s getting!
Pity the innocent.