Skeptical U.S. lawmakers pressure Comey on Trump wiretap claim

Evidence schmevidence. Trump said it, his followers believe it. Their defense of Trump and The Party usually amounts to some variation of 'whatabout', 'liberals are worse', 'Obama did it ('it' meaning anything negative that's ever happened), 'Hillary would have been worse' or 'prove it'. Trump's true believing followers are incapable of seeing any faults in their political messiah. He's achieved cult leader status. And he's got the world's most expensive and frightening military to back him and Bannon up plus support from the media they control.

Once more, Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism:

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

Because he did not ptode any evidence b he got next Monday to 'produce. He has more trouble on his travel ban and ....

Trumpy doesn't need proof or evidence! Imagine if anyone else made such claims!

Evidence schmevidence. Trump said it, his followers believe it.

Just like the Trump haters believe Trump is a stooge of the Russians despite zero evidence.

Their defense of Trump and The Party usually amounts to some variation of 'whatabout', 'liberals are worse', 'Obama did it ('it' meaning anything negative that's ever happened), 'Hillary would have been worse' or 'prove it'. Trump's true believing followers are incapable of seeing any faults in their political messiah. He's achieved cult leader status. And he's got the world's most expensive and frightening military to back him and Bannon up plus support from the media they control.

"Both sides" need to prove their case or stop chasing rabbits down these holes.

Well if there is no evidence that there was a wiretap then trumpy looks like a fool, if there was a wiretap trumpy looks like a fool. Either way trumpy will look like a fool. Now what about RUSSIA and the mess called trumpCare and Steve bannon being under investigation? Is that just fake news now!?

Trumpy doesn't need proof or evidence! Imagine if anyone else made such claims!.

How about some more trumped up charges and accusations.

I like Spicy's explanation or walking back of Trump's statements. He wrote wiretap, but he clearly meant something else.

The whole wiretap tweet was Trump tweeting on a Saturday AM after reading an alt-right article. .He is too dumb to call the DOJ and FBI over to ask them what is up. He could have found out in 15 minutes.

Now we see Trump's own client copies of his tax return "leaked" showing nothing scandalous. The most likely source is Trump so he can scream about the unlawfulness of someone leaking a two page return showing he made money and paid tax and the fake news. He must have needed another leak to draw attention away from something.

Agreed, he makes GWB seem like a genius. At least I trusted that GWB honestly believed what he said as he bumbled around. He is also highly respected in Africa for his AIDS support.

Bass, if you want an example of a bumbling GWB, he called the Iraq war a crusade duhh, he pulled forces out of Afghanistan to support his bogus war with Iraq duhh, he got caught for minutes staring at a class of kids while the nation was under attack on 9/11 duhh, saying he would prosecute anyone in his administration who leaked a CIA operatives name (unless that turned out to be Cheney, obviously didn't clear that statement with Cheney), he selected Cheney as VP duhh, he selected Rumsfeld as S.Def. duhh (he shouldn't have appointed career WH insiders used to power so close to his power).

That proves Trump's allegations were wrong and James Clapper also concluded that there is no evidence that there was any serious collision going on with the Russians.

That proves Trump's allegations were wrong and James Clapper also concluded that there is no evidence that there was any serious collision going on with the Russians.

I still want answers as to why a Russian Oligarch with contacts with Alpha Bank and the Russian Government paid 2.5 times the market price for Trump's Florida home, the most money ever paid for a home in the U.S. This same guy showed up at nearly every major Trump campaign stop.

Trump made hundreds of millions on the deal last year. This gift wasn't because he is so special or a great negotiator.

There is more to come with the Russian connections. It isn't over.

Everything about Trump is false and fictitious, starting with that thing on his head. Luckily he is being allowed to get away with all his nonsense less and less.

I still want answers as to why a Russian Oligarch with contacts with Alpha Bank and the Russian Government paid 2.5 times the market price for Trump's Florida home, the most money ever paid for a home in the U.S. This same guy showed up at nearly every major Trump campaign stop.

Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak said he also met with Hillary campaign staff on a few occasions, I wonder what this all means now......

Trump made hundreds of millions on the deal last year.

He wasn't president then, so good for him, I hope he made as much money as possible on the deal.

This gift wasn't because he is so special or a great negotiator.

And you know this for a fact because......

There is more to come with the Russian connections. It isn't over.

The well is running try and fast.

Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak said he also met with Hillary campaign staff on a few occasions, I wonder what this all means now......

The ambassador was doing his job. Besides, Hillary didn't lie when questioned about the meetings. I am more concerned with the meetings in the EU between Trump surrogates and Russian agents.

The payment is clearly influence peddling and needs to be looked at. Trump has not disclosed his dealings and meeting with the oligarch.

You would be all over a Clinton, but with Trump it is fine a nation's adversary pays money to a presidential candidate. And you talk about the hypocrisy of the left. You probably think Flynn taking $500k from Turkey to act as their foreign agent was good for him. There were good reasons to fire Flynn. He was obviously suborned to a foreign power.

The GoP agenda was changed to be conciliatory to Russia's invasion of Ukraine after meetings with Russians. There has been no explanation for this shift.

And you know this for a fact because......

No one pays 2.5X the market price. It is plainly irrational behavior and needs explanation. As a rational and sophisticated person, the oligarch would pay market price and even try to pay less. No one becomes a billionaire in Russia without ties to Putin.

This well is not dry, there are just too many lies and connections. There is plenty of smoke. I expect there is fire.

I think the NSA is capturing all "signals" they can. Why do you think the CIA/NSA leaders won't provide a number of inadvertent Americans who have had their right to privacy trampled? Counting them would force them to look/listen to the data, violating our rights, as the CIA/NSA see it. Having the data, but not looking at it, in their minds, is legal.

I don't believe that candidate Trump was given any special treatment - his calls were captured just like everyone elses' in the USA was/is.

What else would the NSA do with that huge complex in Utah? https://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

The ambassador was doing his job. Besides, Hillary didn't lie when questioned about the meetings.

That would be a first, over the last 40 years she evidently didn't have that kind of track record

I am more concerned with the meetings in the EU between Trump surrogates and Russian agents.

And how will that impact your life if there is any or beyond a show of a doubt zero evidence of collusion going on?

The payment is clearly influence peddling and needs to be looked at. Trump has not disclosed his dealings and meeting with the oligarch.

And I assume you know something or have concrete proof of this....

You would be all over a Clinton, but with Trump it is fine a nation's adversary pays money to a presidential candidate.

Clinton had $1 million from the Government of Brunei donate money to her campaign, that we know for a fact through Wikileaks.

And you talk about the hypocrisy of the left.

No, if there was any hard hitting evidence of collusion going on in the Trump campaign then I will have an opinion, but since Clapper said, there wasn't, then I don't need to be suspicious about the President.

You probably think Flynn taking $500k from Turkey to act as their foreign agent was good for him. There were good reasons to fire Flynn. He was obviously suborned to a foreign power.

Weren't you appalled when our president said to Medvedev that after the election, he would have more flexibility on the missile defense system.

The GoP agenda was changed to be conciliatory to Russia's invasion of Ukraine after meetings with Russians. There has been no explanation for this shift.

....Nor as to why the Obama administration wouldn't help our key ally to defend itself from the Russians.

No one pays 2.5X the market price. It is plainly irrational behavior and needs explanation. As a rational and sophisticated person, the oligarch would pay market price and even try to pay less. No one becomes a billionaire in Russia without ties to Putin.

Seriously? Keep hoping and praying and keep digging, at this point, the left look ridiculously desperate.

This well is not dry, there are just too many lies and connections. There is plenty of smoke. I expect there is fire.

Naw, just smoke, only a lot of smoke and it was proven with that nothing news Maddow brought out, because if she really had something hard hitting and a bombshell of a revelation, she would have went on the air immediately with it, but she waited until her show airtime, that means, she already knew it's not going to be earth shattering.

So the truth comes out -

Trump team 'incidentally monitored' after election http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39358363

Nothing startling here. "Signals" are captured all the time by the NSA. That's code for "save all voice and data traffic we can, 'cause we may need it later."