Anyone who knows much about Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) would agree that he is the opposite of an extremist flame-thrower. That is why it is such a big deal that he said this:
Senator Mark Warner, of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, privately told friends that he puts the odds at two to one against Trump completing a full term. (Warner’s spokesperson said that the Senator was “not referring specifically to the Russia investigation, but rather the totality of challenges the President is currently facing.”)
I suppose that “the totality of challenges the President is currently facing” could include problems with potential lawsuits due to his business dealings. But nothing concrete has come of all that at this point. On the other hand, this was recently reported.
One source suggested the official investigation was making progress. “They now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion,” the source said. “This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.”
Here is the specific line of inquiry that Sen. Warner is following:
Mr Warner said: “We know about the hacking, and selective leaks, but what really concerns me as a former tech guy is at least some reports – and we’ve got to get to the bottom of this – that there were upwards of a thousand internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers which are then called botnets, that can then generate news down to specific areas.
“It’s been reported to me, and we’ve got to find this out, whether they were able to affect specific areas in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, where you would not have been receiving off of whoever your vendor might have been, Trump versus Clinton, during the waning days of the election, but instead, ‘Clinton is sick’, or ‘Clinton is taking money from whoever for some source’ … fake news…
The key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which Mr Warner named all fell narrowly – and unexpectedly – to Donald Trump.
That kind of targeting would have been difficult to accomplish unless it was coordinated with the Trump campaign.
In other news, CNN has already reported that Sally Yates’ (former Acting Attorney General) testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday about Michael Flynn will contradict what the White House has claimed. Perhaps to provide a distraction from Yates’ testimony, Senator Lindsey Graham invited former National Security Advisor Susan Rice to testify at the same hearing. She declined, leading the president to once again raise his allegations against her that have been proven false.
The president is trying his best to lie, distract and blame. But repeating old lies that the investigators have already discarded isn’t going to help him with those who are serious about this probe.
