Thread by @gregolear

Now that we know for certain that Paul Manafort, the chair of Trump's campaign, gave polling data to his buddy, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, who in turn passed it to the Kremlin...let's review statements made at the time by some seditious liars.

[THREAD]

1/ Throughout the campaign, during the transition period, and after inauguration, Donald Trump and his surrogates vehemently denied meeting with Russians of any stripe, for any purpose.

2/ Every time they were asked about a connection between the campaign and the Kremlin, they shot it down. And they were INDIGNANT about it. The response was always something along the lines of, “Russia? Us? How dare you accuse us of such a thing!”

Here are some examples:

3/
24 July 2016, Paul Manafort, Trump campaign chair:
“…pure obfuscation…..That’s absurd. And, you know, there’s no basis to it.”

4/
24 July 2016, Donald Trump, Jr:
“I can’t think of bigger lies. But that goes to show you what the DNC & ...Clinton camp will do. They will lie & do anything to win…..These lies & the perpetuating of that kind of nonsense to gain some political capital is just outrageous.”

5/
27 July 2016, Donald Trump:
“I can tell you, I think if I came up with that, they’d say, ‘Oh, it’s a conspiracy theory, it’s ridiculous.’ I mean I have nothing to do with Russia. I don’t have any jobs in Russia. I’m all over the world, but we’re not involved in Russia.”

6/
25 September 2016, Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager:
“If [Carter Page is] doing that [meeting with Russians], he’s certainly not doing it with the permission or knowledge of the campaign, the activities that you described. He is certainly not authorized to do that.”

7/
24 October 2016, Trump:
“I have nothing to do with Russia, folks, I’ll give you a written statement.”

8/

11 November 2016, Hope Hicks, campaign communications director:
“It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

9/

18 December 2017, Conway:
“Those conversations never happened. I hear people saying it like it’s a fact on television. That is just not only inaccurate and false, but it’s dangerous.”

[ALSO: NO ONE WAS SAYING THIS ON TELEVISION]

10/

11 January 2017, Trump (tweet):
“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”

11/

15 January 2017, Mike Pence, Vice President-elect:
“Well of course not. I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”

[PENCE KNEW AND ALWAYS HAS]

12/

7 February 2017, Trump (tweet):
“I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy…”

16 February 2017, Trump:
“I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that I deal with does.”

13/

19 Feb 2017, Reince Priebus, WH chief of staff:
“I can assure you & I have been approved to say this: that the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that is not only inaccurate, but it’s grossly overstated & it was wrong. And there’s nothing to it.”

14/

20 February 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy White House press secretary:
Trump/Russia is “a non-story because to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place, so it’s hard to make a comment on something that never happened.”

15/

24 February 2017, Sean Spicer, White House press secretary:
“Well, again, there are no connections to find out about. That’s the problem. I think, a), he [Trump] has answered it forcefully. You can’t disprove something that doesn’t exist... [cont'd]

16/

Spicer cont'd: "He’s talked about the fact how many times he’s talked to Putin. He has no interests in Russia….There’s only so many times he can deny something that doesn’t exist.”

17/

26 February 2017, Trump (tweet):
“Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”

18/
11 May 2017, Trump:
“I have had dealings over the years where I sold a house to a very wealthy Russian many years ago. I had the Miss Universe pageant—which I owned for quite a while—I had it in Moscow a long time ago. But other than that, I have nothing to do with Russia.”

19/

18 May 2017, Trump:
“…the entire thing has been a witch hunt. There is no collusion—certainly myself and my campaign—but I can always speak for myself and the Russians—zero.”

20/ All of those lies were repeated over and over in the press and on social media. Many Americans believed these lies. And now half a million of us are dead.

All of those quotes are in the first chapter of my book DIRTY RUBLES, published in May of 2018. All stuff that was reported in the media, but which the MSM never bothered to organize and present as a coherent narrative.

Lies. Filthy, seditious lies. Lies that killed.

[END]

PS
Photo of Kellyanne Conway by the indefatigable Gage Skidmore.