The Mainstream Media Are Not Handling The Zero Collusion Conclusion Well

[ATruepatriot]

Cable news pundits were not satisfied with the answers given by Attorney General William Barr at his press conference on the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian collusion Thursday morning. As Barr once again confirmed that there was no collusion by the Trump campaign, members of the mainstream media desperately clung to their long-held conspiracy theories.

Here are some of the most hilarious meltdowns that happened on social media and live television.

Over on MSNBC, Neal Katyal said Barr, “sounded like a spokesperson [for Trump], not an attorney general.”

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/18/mainstream-media-not-handling-zero-collusion-conclusion-well/

[enhanced_deficit]

Yea, there is not much talk of it lately and lot more focus on so called "obstruction of justice" claims taking a page from Ken Starr-Bill Clinton impeachment trial tactics strategy.

[ATruepatriot]

Yea, there is not much talk of it lately and lot more focus on so called "obstruction of justice" claims taking a page from Ken Starr-Bill Clinton impeachment trial tactics strategy.

Barr just cleared him of it all again this morning during the "big press conference" that was supposed to expose him. "To charge someone of a crime there first has to be a crime, and there is none".

[Anti Federalist]

"I don't like that fucking guy" is not an impeachable offense.

[specsaregood]

well they represent and believe in a completely fictional ideology.

[ATruepatriot]

"I don't like that $#@!ing guy" is not an impeachable offense.

Lol... nope. Man are they trying to save face and grasp at straws this morning. They have egg all over their faces right now.

[TheTexan]

Lol... nope. Man are they trying to save face and grasp at straws this morning. They have egg all over their faces right now.

CNN has minute by minute updates as they read the 400 page report.

So far the most interesting bit is that Trump was caught using the word "fuck".

I'm refreshing the CNN page constantly though to get their latest updates. I'll let you know if I learn more.

[Anti Globalist]

Sea levels will rise by 6 inches with the tears of the liberals.

[ATruepatriot]

CNN has minute by minute updates as they read the 400 page report.

So far the most interesting bit is that Trump was caught using the word "$#@!".

I'm refreshing the CNN page constantly though to get their latest updates. I'll let you know if I learn more.

Thank you! Please let us know if they actually find a smoking gun that is not taken out of context or spun 180! I watched some NBC earlier and they got nothing at all so far. :)

[ATruepatriot]

CNN has minute by minute updates as they read the 400 page report.

So far the most interesting bit is that Trump was caught using the word "$#@!".

I'm refreshing the CNN page constantly though to get their latest updates. I'll let you know if I learn more.

I did note that now they are blaming mueller and going to throw him under the bus for "not doing his job right". lol

[specsaregood]

I did note that now they are blaming mueller and going to throw him under the bus for "not doing his job right". lol

may I remind you that these are the same people that think that men can have periods too?

[enhanced_deficit]

Barr just cleared him of it all again this morning during the "big press conference" that was supposed to expose him. "To charge someone of a crime there first has to be a crime, and there is none".

Russia-MAGA Collusion hoax was a Nothing Burger to begin with and lot of Russian alleged election activity occured under Obama's watch.
There were however other burgers on the menu but Dems choices seem to be narrow.




The Nothing Burger vs The Invisible Burger

https://admin62b4b.davidicke.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/download-15-2-1.png







That said, to be devil's advocate there can be some merit to critics arguments about possibility of bias factor regarding a " a Politician appointed official clearing that politician of XYZ charge".
Previously bias arguments appeared to carry some weight after reading some reports about MAGA allies hiring ex Mossad spies to dig dirt on MAGA opponents etc and MAGA making some high profile pro-Israel policy annoucements days before Barr and Rosenstein (both have Jewish heritage) were going to make deductions for Cngress on 'obstruction of justice' aspects in the Mueller Report (in the context of MAGA's Heritagometer 'Mexican Judge' (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?533329-On-the-Eve-of-Israel%92s-Election-Netanyahu-Thanks-Trump-for-Sanctioning-Iran-at-His-Request&p=6779710&viewfull=1#post6779710) bias mindset). However on review it seems MAGA had made verious other pro-Israel major policy annoucements including setting up first permanent US military base there, harsh anti-Iran sanctions etc well before and after appointing Barr and Rosenstein at Justice and US policy shift on Golan Heights the week of Barr's letter to Congress clearing him of any charges could be just coincidence or timed to help get Netanyahu elected who is reportedly also funded by MAGA's pro-Israel top funder Sheldon Adelson. Had not seen any reports of Barr's or Rosentein's connections to MAGA's funder Adelson.



Related

Why Mueller did not exonerate POTUS on Obstruction Of Justice charge? (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?532799-Why-Mueller-did-not-exonerate-POTUS-on-Obstruction-Of-Justice-charge&)

Trump retweets meme calling for imprisonment of his own deputy attorney general
Nov 28, 2018

Mueller refers sex misconduct scheme targeting him to FBI for investigation
Oct. 30, 2018By Brandy Zadrozny, Ben Collins and Tom Winter
Special counsel Robert Mueller last week asked the FBI to investigate a possible scam in which a woman would make false claims that he was guilty of sexual misconduct and harassment, after several political reporters were contacted about doing a story on the alleged misconduct.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...gation-n926301 (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/mueller-refers-sex-assault-scheme-targeting-him-fbi-investigation-n926301)

Firm Linked to Israeli Intelligence Ran Pro-Trump Propaganda
Oct 10, 2018 - According to the NYT, Special Counsel Robert Mueller who ... had been revealed that Trump's team hired another Israeli spy firm – Black Cube.

Israeli spies tried to get dirt on Obama aides tied to the Iran deal
May 7, 2018 - Black Cube, a secretive Israeli intelligence firm enlisted by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to undermine women who made ...
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/5/7/17327278/ben-rhodes-black-cube-iran-deal

[AZJoe]

1118900041941434370

[Swordsmyth]

"I don't like that $#@!ing guy" is not an impeachable offense.
How about "It was her turn"?

[Swordsmyth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDYNVH0U3cs

[TheTexan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDYNVH0U3cs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H34ukFe8g

[Anti Globalist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_451rIuPzWU

[Philhelm]

They have egg all over their faces right now.

Except for Don Lemon. That's semen in his case.

[AZJoe]

Boom Robert Mueller Report Obliterates Russiagate (https://theintercept.com/2019/04/18/robert-mueller-did-not-merely-reject-the-trumprussia-conspiracy-theories-he-obliterated-them/)
Glenn Greenwald
https://libertarianinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/explosion-147909_1280-696x531.png

THE TWO-PRONGED CONSPIRACY THEORY that has dominated U.S. political discourse for almost three years (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKmtfTe2rc&list=PLXlk_TEo7Llxi5LqDR8q7DyaLt7AtQGGi) – that (1) Trump, his family and his campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, and (2) Trump is beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin — was not merely rejected today by the final report (https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf) of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. It was obliterated: in an undeniable and definitive manner.

The key fact is this: Mueller – contrary to weeks of false media claims – did not merely issue a narrow, cramped, legalistic finding that there was insufficient evidence to indict Trump associates for conspiring with Russia and then proving their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That would have been devastating enough to those who spent the last two years or more misleading people to believe (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1112878929940045826) that conspiracy convictions of Trump’s closest aides and family members were inevitable. But his mandate was much broader than that: to state what did or did not happen. …

Mueller, in addition to concluding that evidence was insufficient to charge any American with crimes relating to Russian election interference, also stated emphatically in numerous instances that there was no evidence – not merely that there was insufficient evidence to obtain a criminal conviction – that key prongs of this three-year-old conspiracy theory actually happened. As Mueller himself put it: “in some instances, the report points out the absence of evidence or conflicts in the evidence about a particular fact or event.”

With regard to Facebook ads and Twitter posts from the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, for example, Mueller could not have been more blunt: “The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation” … Note that this exoneration includes not only Trump campaign officials but all Americans:

https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/ira11-1555617882.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=154

…

To get a further sense for how definitive the Report’s rejection is of the key elements of the alleged conspiracy theory, consider Mueller’s discussion of efforts by George Papadopoulos, Joseph Misfud and and “two Russian nationals” whereby they tried “to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian officials” to talk about how the two sides could work together to disseminate information about Hillary Clinton. As Mueller puts it: “No meeting took place.”

Several of the media’s most breathless and hyped “bombshells” were dismissed completely by Mueller. Regarding various Trump officials’ 2016 meetings (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/13/all-of-the-known-times-the-trump-campaign-met-with-russians/?utm_term=.a889d0bdc8bc) with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Mueller said they were “brief, public and nonsubstantive.” Concerning the much-hyped change to GOP platform regarding Ukraine, Mueller wrote that the “evidence does not establish that one campaign official’s efforts to dilute a portion of the Republican platform was undertaken at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia,” and further noted that such a change was consistent with Trump’s publicly stated foreign policy view (one shared by Obama (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/defying-obama-many-in-congress-press-to-arm-ukraine.html)) to avoid provoking gratuitous conflict with the Kremlin over arming Ukrainians. Mueller also characterized a widely hyped “meeting” (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/why-did-jeff-sessions-really-meet-sergey-kislyak/530091/) between then-Senator Jeff Sessions and Kislyak (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-discussed-trump-campaign-related-matters-with-russian-ambassador-us-intelligence-intercepts-show/2017/07/21/3e704692-6e44-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.908133a1a9fb) as one that did not “include any more than a passing mention of the presidential campaign.”

Regarding one of the most-cited pieces of evidence by Trump/Russia conspiracists – that Russia tried once Trump was nominated to shape his foreign policy posture toward Russia – Mueller concluded that there is simply no evidence to support it:
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/ukra-1555606610.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=195

…




And Mueller’s examination of all the so-called “links” between Trump campaign officials and Russia that the U.S. media has spent almost three years depicting as “bombshell” evidence (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html) of criminality met the same fate: the evidence could not, and did not, establish that any such links constituted “coordination” or “conspiracy” between Trump and Russia:
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/mueller222-1555604032.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=317

Perhaps most amazingly, even low-level, ancillary, hangers-on to the Trump campaign that even many Russiagate skeptics thought might end up being charged as Russian agents were not. …

But so vacant is the Mueller investigation when it comes to supporting any of the prevailing conspiracy theories that it did not find even a single American whom it could indict or charge with illegally working for Russia, secretly acting as a Russian agent, or conspiring with the Russians over the election – not even Carter Page. …
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/pageeee2-1555611649.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=365

In sum, Democrats and their supporters had the exact prosecutor they all agreed was the embodiment of competence and integrity in Robert Mueller. He assembled a team of prosecutors and investigators that countless media accounts heralded as the most aggressive and adept (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/us/politics/andrew-weissmann-mueller.html) in the nation. They had subpoena power, the vast surveillance apparatus of the U.S. government at their disposal, a demonstrated willingness to imprison anyone who lied to them, and unlimited time and resources to dig up everything they could.

The result of all of that was that not a single American – whether with the Trump campaign or otherwise – was charged or indicted on the core question of whether there was any conspiracy or coordination with Russia over the election. No Americans were charged or even accused of being controlled by or working at the behest of the Russian government. None of the key White House aides at the center of the controversy who testified for hours and hours – including Donald Trump, Jr. or Jared Kushner – were charged with any crimes of any kind, not even perjury, obstruction of justice or lying to Congress.

These facts are fatal to the conspiracy theorists who have drowned U.S. discourse for almost three years with a dangerous and distracting fixation on a fictitious espionage thriller involved unhinged claims of sexual and financial blackmail, nefarious infiltration of the U.S. Government by familiar foreign villains, and election cheating that empowered an illegitimate President. They got the exact prosecutor and investigation that they wanted, yet he could not establish that any of this happened and, in many cases, established that it did not.

THE ANTI-CLIMACTIC ENDING of the Mueller investigation is particularly stunning given how broad Mueller’s investigative scope ended up being, extending far beyond the 2016 election into years worth of Trump’s alleged financial dealings with Russia (and, obviously, Manafort’s with Ukraine and Russia). There can simply be no credible claim that Mueller was, in any meaningful way, impeded by scope, resources or topic limitation from finding anything for which he searched. …

John Brennan has a lot to answer for—going before the American public for months, cloaked with CIA authority and openly suggesting he’s got secret info, and repeatedly turning in performances …

Indeed, so many of the most touted media “bombshells” claiming to establish Trump/Russia crimes have been proven false by this report. … nothing in the Report even hints, let alone states, that he ever visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, let alone visited him three times, including during the 2016 election. How the Guardian could justify still not retracting that false story (https://theintercept.com/2019/01/02/five-weeks-after-the-guardians-viral-blockbuster-assangemanafort-scoop-no-evidence-has-emerged-just-stonewalling/) is mystifying.

Faring even worse is the Buzzfeed bombshell (https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/beyond-buzzfeed-the-10-worst-most-embarrassing-u-s-media-failures-on-the-trumprussia-story/) from January claiming that “President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow” and that “Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.” Mueller himself responded to the story by insisting it was false, and his Report directly contradicts it, as it makes clear that Cohen told Mueller the exact opposite:
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/cohennnn-1555612923.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=245

Equally debunked is CNN’s major blockbuster (https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/26/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-june-2016-meeting-knowledge/index.html?platform=hootsuite) by Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen from last July that “Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower.” The Mueller Report says the exact opposite: that Cohen had no knowledge of Trump’s advanced knowledge. …

But beyond the gutting of these core conspiracy claims is that Mueller’s investigation probed areas far beyond the initial scope of Trump/Russia election-conspiring, and came up empty. Among other things, Mueller specifically examined Trump’s financial dealings with Russia to determine whether that constituted incriminating evidence of corrupt links: …

Indeed, Mueller’s examination of Trump’s financial dealings with Russia long pre-dates the start of the Trump campaign, going back several years before the election: …

Mueller additionally made clear that he received authorization to investigate numerous Americans for ties to Russia despite their not being formally associated with the Trump campaign, including Michael Cohen and Roger Stone. And regarding Cohen, Mueller specifically was authorized to investigate any attempts by Cohen to “receive funds from Russia-backed entities.” None of this deep diving to other individuals or years of alleged financial dealings with Russian resulted in any finding that Trump or any of his associates were controlled by, or corruptly involved with, the Russian government.

Then there is the issue of Manafort’s relationship with the Ukrainians, and specifically his providing of polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, an episode which Trump/Putin conspiracist Marcy Wheeler, along with many others (https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-collusion-debate-ended-last-night), particularly hyped over and over (https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/01/10/paul-manaforts-ongoing-conspiracy-with-suspected-russian-agent-konstantin-kilimnik/). To begin with, Mueller said his office “did not identify evidence of a connection” between that act and “Russian interference in the election,” nor did he “establish that Manafort otherwise coordinated with the Russian government on its election-inteference efforts”:
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/manafor-1555606985.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=220

Also endlessly hyped by Wheeler and other conspiracists were the post-election contacts between Trump and Russia: as though it’s unusual that a major power would seek to build new, constructive relationships with a newly elected administration. Indeed, Wheeler went so far as to cite these post-election contacts (https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/03/putting-a-face-mine-to-the-risks-posed-by-gop-games-on-mueller-investigation/) to turn her own source into the FBI on the ground that it constituted smoking gun evidence, an act for which she was praised (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-broke-a-cardinal-rule-of-journalism-by-revealing-her-source-to-the-fbi-heres-why/2018/07/06/b3201632-8128-11e8-b9a5-7e1c013f8c33_story.html?utm_term=.b2028ec5bc3f) by the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-broke-a-cardinal-rule-of-journalism-by-revealing-her-source-to-the-fbi-heres-why/2018/07/06/b3201632-8128-11e8-b9a5-7e1c013f8c33_story.html?utm_term=.b2028ec5bc3f) (nothing Wheeler claimed about the evidence “related to the Mueller investigation” that she claimed to possess appears to be in the Mueller Report). Here again, the Mueller Report could not substantiate any of these claims:
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/04/poste-1555607572.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=311

The centerpiece of the Trump/Russia conspiracy – the Trump Tower meeting – was such a dud … Not only could Mueller not find any criminality in this meeting relating to election conspiring, but he could not even use election law to claim it was an illegal gift of something of value from a foreigner, because, among other things, the information offered was of so little value that it could not even pass the $2,000 threshold required to charge someone for a misdemeanor, let alone the $25,000 required to make it a felony. …

Indeed, the key Trumpworld participants who testified about what happened at that meeting and its aftermath (Trump Jr. and Kushner) were not even accused by Mueller of lying about any of it. …

The sweeping Mueller investigation ended with zero indictments of zero Americans for conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election. Both Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner – the key participants in the Trump Tower meeting – testified for hours and hours yet were never charged for perjury, lying or obstruction, even though Mueller proved how easily he would indict anyone who lied as part of the investigation. And this massive investigation simply did not establish any of the conspiracy theories that huge parts of the Democratic Party, the intelligence community and the U.S. media spent years encouraging the public to believe. …
But the contempt in which the media and political class is held by so much of the U.S. … will only continue to grow as a result, and deservedly so. …

[euphemia]

This is the first year that Lent doesn’t feel bad. I gave up the 24/7 news cycle. I heard about this on an update on the radio. I’m good.

[AZJoe]

Ben Swann today 4-18-19 -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPFumZKc1k

[Pauls' Revere]

Maybe they will drink kool aid like Jonestown.

[Brian4Liberty]

All that is really important is whether the statute of limitations is up for the crimes of Hillary and friends.

That was the whole point of this charade.

Awan brothers laughing in Pakistan...

[Swordsmyth]

All that is really important is whether the statute of limitations is up for the crimes of Hillary and friends.

That was the whole point of this charade.

Awan brothers laughing in Pakistan...
Treason has no statute of limitations.

[AZJoe]

Babylon Bee (parody)

CNN: 'God Allowed The Mueller Report To Test Our Unshakable Faith In Collusion' (https://babylonbee.com/news/cnn-god-allowed-the-mueller-report-to-test-our-unshakable-faith-in-collusion)

Anchors at CNN headquarters have made a bold statement of unwavering faith … "We believe in collusion with all our hearts and will never let the world's teachings get in the way of that," …

https://babylonbee.com/img/articles/article-4056-2.jpg

"If God allowed this report to be written in the manner that it was, He did so to test our unshakable faith in what we know to be true," said Anderson Cooper.

"We believe in the one true Russian collusion, the one that was spoken into truth and made real far before any evidence was brought before this dark world," added Natalie Allen.

All of the anchors began to speak in unison, reciting their statement of faith with eye closed and hands raised …

[enhanced_deficit]

On a related note, any news how MAGA 2016 election win 'architect' Steve Bannon is holding up?


https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PrVf54Ihtgw/Wk1SddykMmI/AAAAAAAAfis/UgAp8mwQfmUFtWCxJ4D5tyFKzhbgy3srQCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-01-03%2Bat%2B8.43.50%2BAM.pnghttps://assets.rbl.ms/17663200/980x.png

[Schifference]

https://youtu.be/IMekzZjC4lE

[Superfluous Man]

"To charge someone of a crime there first has to be a crime".

In what utopia does this guy live?

[RJB]

In what utopia does this guy live?

In government employee world of course. In fact you can even commit a crime on video and still not be charged with one.

[ATruepatriot]

In what utopia does this guy live?

Right? what was he thinking?

[Superfluous Man]

In government employee world of course. In fact you can even commit a crime and still not be charged with one.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to RJB again."

[RJB]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to RJB again."

Lol

[AZJoe]

Glenn Greenwald: MSNBC and CNN are Now State-Run Television


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNu_zvm3MOg

[AZJoe]

1109943017396469760

[AZJoe]

Russiagate - focused application of Cognitive Ease effect for deception


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=159&v=cebFWOlx848

[nikcers]

I think the best one I saw was one talking point that said that the Mueller report isn't a political win because their stupid poll says that people don't consider it an issue. Those crooks are blatantly bragging on about how they dug their heals in and lied to people to win the house majority and Trump couldn't even get anything done that people care about because of their propaganda. There is a special place in hell for the left pushing this healthcare system that is basically killing people because the quality of healthcare is so bad

[AZJoe]

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/schiff-creek-dt-600.jpg?itok=t2xVT2tk

[Anti Globalist]

Its so funny that you had all these idiots believing in this Russia hoax in the first place. Imagine 50 years from now when these people will tell their grandchildren that they believed it(and most likely still will).

[AZJoe]

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/56301760_2364692417081993_324307573157134336_n.jpg ?_nc_cat=102&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=fb43c8df34a52648350dcf85fff66a75&oe=5D413DD8