Thread by @jedshug

The reason why it's hard for the public to absorb the Russia conspiracy is that Trump is so obvious, explicit, and flagrant.
We are experiencing cognitive dissonance in seeing a president repeatedly and openly conspire. It seems too crazy to be true.
But it's true.

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1085975508465127424

For goodness sake, his Treasury department is trying to lift sanctions for the obvious benefit of Putin, Deripaska, VTB, Rusal, and Putin-enabler Glencore. Yesterday, 43 GOP Senators -just enough - voted yesterday to preserve this corrupt deal.
The pay-offs are in broad daylight.

3/ Trump's comments on Putin were so sycophantic and obsequious for so long, I think we forget how obvious it was during the 2016 campaign.
When Clinton said he was Putin's puppet, it wasn't a random attack.
It was an obvious observation. Let's review...
cnn.com/interactive/20…

4/ Where Western banks had seen a liability, Russia saw an _asset_.
Pun intended.
To those following Trump's many financial disasters, the signs were clear: Russia had bailed out Trump financially when everyone else sensibly realized he was just a bankruptcy waiting to happen.

5/ The bizarre pro-Putin tweets go back to 2013. The charitable reading (pun not intended) was that Trump desparately relied on Russian investment for financial survival and he was kissing up to Putin for more:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/347191326112112640

6/ The above was June 2013. Here's Oct 2013 on David Letterman:
Trump says he’s done “a lot of business with the Russians," calls them “smart” & “tough." They don’t look “so dumb right now.” Putin is a “tough guy” & says that he “met him once.” h/t @CNN

7/ Damn, this @MaxBoot piece takes no prisoners. It laid out the case that Trump could be a Russian asset from evidence in plain sight. This article itself could be an article of impeachment.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/here-…

8/ When @jonathanchait wrote this piece in 2017, "What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?" some people dismissed him. I thought it was a clear roadmap, consistent with @lukeharding1968's reporting. It is a must-read once again.
nymag.com/intelligencer/…

9/ Today I spoke with @CrisLeeMaza @Newsweek about House vote to keep Russian sanctions and the shameful Senate vote by 43 GOP to lift. New vote is possible. We just need 3: @MittRomney @BernieSanders @SenatorBurr @LindseyGrahamSC @lisamurkowski

https://twitter.com/CrisLeeMaza/status/1086016679954534401

10/ @jonathanchait: "2003-2017, people from former USSR made 86 all-cash purchases—a red flag of potential laundering—of Trump properties, totaling $109 million. In 2010, DeutscheBank loaned him 100s of millions during the same period it was laundering billions in Russian money."

11/ @DonaldJTrumpJr in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."
@EricTrump in 2014: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia."
Yep. And Russia gets all the leverage they need in return.

12/ Trump 2013: “I do have a relationship [w/ Putin] and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today...I do have a relationship with him and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened.”

13/ Trump 2014:
“When I went to Russis, (Putin) contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us. They’re outsmarting us at many turns. Their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us.“
Yup.

14/ Trump 2014:
“We just left Moscow. [Putin] could not have been nicer. He was so nice and so everything. But you have to give him credit that what he’s doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong.”
Trump praised Putin’s invasion of Crimea. @CNN

15/ INSANITY:
Trump 2014: Endorses Putin’s invasion of Crimea, ”Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle. And so smart. When you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, OK, ‘We’ll go and take it over.’ You have to give him a lot of credit.”

16/ Trump 2014: Endorses Putin’s advance into Ukraine again:
Putin “absolutely having a great time. Russia is really hot stuff. You have people in the Ukraine — who knows, set up or not — but it can’t all be set up, I mean they’re marching in favor of joining Russia.”

17/ Trump 2015 on Putin murdering journalists: “In all fairness to Putin, you're saying he killed people. I haven't seen that. I don't know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he's killed? I haven't' seen any evidence..."

18/ 2016, Trump on murder of a former Russian agent. British concluded Putin “probably approved” his poisoning.
"Have they found him guilty? I don't think they've found him guilty. If he did it, fine. But I don’t know that he did it. In all fairness to Putin—I don’t know..."

19/ Trump continued: "I’m not saying this because he says, ‘Trump is brilliant and leading everybody’ —the fact is that, you know, he hasn’t been convicted of anything.”
Feb: "I have no relationship with him other than he called me a genius. He said, ‘Donald Trump is a genius.'"

18/ Feb-April 2016, Trump repeats "Putin has been very nice to me."
A month later, he changes his tune:
"Have you ever spoken to Putin?"
"No comment."
July: “But I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.”

20/ Trump continues to praise Putin through the rest of the campaign, while also denying ever meeting Putin. Totally delusional.
After the election, Obama hits Putin with sanctions.
Trump supports Putin:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/814919370711461890

21/ When Trump said July 2016, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find 30,000 emails,” too many felt like it had to be a joke.
It wasn’t.
He has been conspiring with Putin publicly and privately for at least 5 years. The GOP knows it and still enables it.