1/A thread about the collusion that took place in 2016 out in the open. June 9th Trump Tower mtg outlined the deal, showed interest by Trumpworld. June 8th DCLeaks established. June 12th Assange announces he has Clinton emails. Russians signal they are ready.
2/In run up to GOP convention, Manafort insures GOP platform on Ukraine watered down, made more pro-Russian. Signal returned - game on says Trump world. Remember this was covered at the time - no secret there. washingtonpost.com/opinions/globa…
3/Hours after Trump becomes official nominee, Russia launches massive attack on DNC. Takes out DNC Chair and senior staff, severely weakens Committee for entire general election, throws Dem convention into chaos. washingtonpost.com/opinions/globa…
4/IMHO, the Russian attack on the DNC was itself enough to have thrown the election to Trump. Was perhaps biggest oppo research hit in American history. Disabled, weakened main vehicle for electing Dems. Restarted HRC/Bernie tensions. Impact was way more than 70,000 votes.
5/Imagine you are Trump campaign at start of Dem Convention. Russians came to you offering deal. You played ball. They then launched a massive, days long attack on your opponent, weakening them. Clearly it was game on, Russians were in, bigly, and everyone in Trumpworld knew.
6/News accounts at time of the DNC attack reported it may have come from Russia. Russians had approached the entire senior staff of Trump campaign abt releasing emails. It happens. Please do not tell me at that point everyone in RNC/Trumpworld knew Russia was attacking US.
7/So, patriots would have called the FBI. What did Trump do? Within a few days of the massive Russian attack on the DNC, he asked the Russians to keep going, do more, giving them permission to expand assault on the US. And they listened to him, and did. cnn.com/2018/07/13/pol…
8/But it didn't stop there. Throughout the general, despite being briefed the Russians were attacking the US, Trump and his team keep egging Russia on to do more, to keep going, to expand their efforts. cnn.com/2018/07/13/pol… Again - they knew it was Russia doing this work.
9/Don Jr. even talked directly to Wikileaks. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
10/And in response to Trump's repeated public urging, Russia expanded their campaign beyond the initial massive DNC attack. We are learning they in fact stayed in the DNC system longer than previously thought, stealing very high value campaign analytics.
11/And they attacked Podesta, and did so every single day the last month of the election. Distracting him, the campaign, eating up ability of the Clinton campaign to tell its story. Was hugely impactful hit on Clinton. google.com/search?q=Russi…
12/And then they launched their historic social media influence effort, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in total impressions, reach. Was like having another SuperPAC out there working for you. nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/…
13/Taken together - massive DNC hit, weakened national party committee, monthlong attack on Podesta/Clinton campaign, enormous social media effort on Trump's behalf - can anyone really argue this wasn't worth 70,000 votes? Impact was probably worth MILLIONS of votes for Trump.
14/But what matters most is we now know Trump campaign actually discussed working together with the Russians to attack Clinton before the months of brutal attacks began. They encouraged it. Gave green light. Egged it on, gave permission. And thus they are all traitors.
15/Which is why Trump is so deferential to Putin - he owes his election to him. Putin made a massive investment in Trump, and our President is no dummy. He owes him, and has given Putin just about everything he could have ever asked for. thedailybeast.com/the-way-trump-…
16/And the corruption of our democracy didn't end in 2016 - the rest of the GOP has also worked tirelessly to cover up Putin's crimes. thehill.com/policy/nationa…
17/Conclusion - impossible any longer to look away, pretend this all didn't happen, or if it is not a grave threat to America/West. As @RepAdamSchiff said this week, we all must "wake up" now & join this fight against the degradation of our great country.
