CrusaderFrank
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- May 20, 2009
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james clapper also said there was no russia collussion. who do you believe?WASHINGTON — American democracy is “under assault” on separate fronts from President Donald Trump and Russia, the former U.S. intelligence chief warned Sunday, expressing dismay over the abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey amid a probe into Moscow’s meddling in U.S. elections and possible ties with the Trump campaign.
As Trump works to fast-track Comey’s successor, lawmakers from both parties urged him to steer clear of any politicians for the job and say he must “clean up the mess that he mostly created.”
“I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally — and that’s the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system,” said James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence. “I think as well our institutions are under assault internally.”
When he was asked, “Internally, from the president?” Clapper said, “Exactly.”
Clapper spoke following Trump’s sudden firing of Comey last week, which drew sharp criticism because it came amid the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Clapper said America’s founding fathers had created three co-equal branches of government with checks and balances, but with Trump as president, that was now “eroding.”
Lawmakers from both parties reprimanded Trump’s actions, which included shifting explanations from the White House for Comey’s dismissal and an ominous tweet by Trump that warned Comey against leaks to the press because he may have “tapes” of their conversations. The lawmakers called for a new FBI director without any political background and said Trump would need to hand over to Congress any taped conversations with Comey, if they exist.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said selecting an FBI agent to lead the agency would allow the nation to “reset.” He dismissed as less desirable at least two of the 14 candidates under consideration by Trump, former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, explaining that “these are not normal circumstances.”
James Clapper: U.S. government “under assault” by Trump after Comey firing – The Denver Post
And the pounding goes on--this from James Clapper who Trump tweeted out last week--claiming he stated there was no evidence against him--when Clapper stated "he knew of no evidence" and then clarified the next day that he would not have been privy to any information regarding the Russian investigtion, and in fact didn't know that there was an ongoing investigation into Trump & his surrogates that started last July.
The FBI Has Been Investigating Trump’s Russia Ties Since July
Well if you didn't have reading comprehension problems along with an attention span of a gnat you would have seen that Clapper did NOT say that. He stated he hasn't "seen" any evidence of collusion, not that it didn't exist.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Friday he doesn’t know whether evidence exists of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the presidential election, contradicting President Trump’s tweeted claim that Clapper “and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt” said there is no collusion. Earlier Friday, Trump tweeted, “When James Clapper himself, and virtually everybody else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?”
“I don’t know if there was collusion or not,” Clapper said in an interview on MSNBC. “I don’t know if there’s evidence of collusion or not, nor should I have known.
Clapper rebuts Trump: ‘I don’t know if there was collusion or not’
The CIA was too busy spying on Conservatives to pay attention to the Russians
