🇺🇸 Durham's Condemnation

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🐘 Wednesday, May 17: 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination: Trump 62, DeSantis 17, Pence 6, Haley 5, Hutchinson 3, Ramaswamy 2, Scott, Elder, Christie, Sununu (Rasmussen Reports)

🐘 Wednesday, May 17: General Election: Trump vs. Biden: Trump 44, Biden 42 (Economist/YouGov)

🟰 Wednesday, May 17: General Election: DeSantis vs. Biden: DeSantis 41, Biden 41 (Economist/YouGov)

📉 Wednesday, May 17: Direction of Country: Right Direction 32, Wrong Track 60 (Economist/YouGov)

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Left: The demographic makeup of the country’s voters continues to shift. That creates headwinds for Republicans Ronald Brownstein, CNN

Left: Trump’s Republican Rivals Are Funneling Money to Daniel Penny Noah Lanard, Mother Jones

Left: Time Is Running Out for Texas Republicans to Clarify Exceptions in Their New Abortion Law Mary Tuma, The Nation

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FBI

Durham's Condemnation

Earlier this week, DOJ Special Counsel John Durham released his report concerning the investigation into alleged "collusion" between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. It found the FBI showed "confirmation bias" in its willingness to target Trump, all while ignoring exculpatory evidence and failing to show the same rigor when investigating others like Hillary Clinton.

Reporting from The Right: Trump says there 'must be a heavy price to pay' for Comey, Democrats after release of Durham report Brooke Singman, Fox News

Reporting from The Left: Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe CNN News Staff

From The Flag: Former President Trump has taken to social media and said individuals must be held accountable, adding he's been a victim of a "long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats." Some prominent Democrats, like Congressman Adam Schiff, have noted there were some people arrested as part of the probe — for process and finance crimes. Here's more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Law Enforcement Agencies Shouldn't Be Political Tools

• Special Counsel Durham found the DOJ did not have sufficient evidence to open the case in the first place, and errors were made beyond that point as well.

• Because it's so important to not interfere with our elections, law enforcement must tread lightly when campaigns make accusations – but that's not what happened here.

• The report might not look like much to the American people, but it's a gold mine for Congressman Jim Jordan.

Durham Report Slams FBI's Trump-Russia Probe Samuels & Beitsch, The Hill: "John Durham, a Trump-era special counsel ... concluded authorities didn’t have sufficient information to open the case. While Durham does not recommend any new charges in his final 305-page report, he offers a scathing assessment of the FBI’s process in how it launched and carried out the investigation, which was known as 'Crossfire Hurricane.' 'The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,' Durham wrote, arguing that the bureau relied on 'raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.' The report comes after a roughly four-year investigation into how the FBI launched a probe into the 2016 Trump campaign and possible contacts with Russia. ... Trump himself repeatedly raised expectations for the Durham probe, suggesting it would unveil the 'crime of the century.' Durham’s investigation yielded multiple indictments, but limited results in court."

The Shoddy Russia Investigation Editors, National Review: "... the FBI, doing the bidding of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party, portrayed Donald Trump as a clandestine agent of Russia ... Because electoral politics is supposed to be insulated from law enforcement absent evidence that a serious crime or perilous threat to national security is afoot, the FBI is expected to tread lightly, especially in the invocation of its foreign counterintelligence powers. ... That is not what happened ... (in the) Trump-Russia 'collusion' probe. To the contrary, Durham has documented that at the headquarters level under Director James Comey, the bureau began taking special interest in the Trump campaign in April 2016. ... there is strong evidence that headquarters harbored political and personal disdain for Trump. Although professional investigators are obligated to check their politics at the door in carrying out their duties, it is clear that the Trump campaign became an FBI obsession."

One more opinion piece from the Right: What the Durham Report is really worth David Zukerman, American Thinker

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Durham Report Doesn't Change Much

• Despite the scolding tone of Durham's report, it doesn't offer much in terms of advice or suggested changes, other than the DOJ should "adhere to its mission statement."

• Durham's report focuses on "Crossfire Hurricane" as the original predicate for the Russian collusion investigation while ignoring other reasons for the probe.

• This long-awaited report failed to deliver the "crime of the century" as Trump has claimed, but it did provide him with a potential political payoff.

Trump won't read the Durham report — but he'd hate it if he did Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion: "Consider the argument that rapidly began circulating on Twitter that Durham conclusively stated that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved a plan for her 2016 campaign to 'vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.' It’s a hell of a claim, but the relevant section of the report actually says the claim is based on Russian intelligence analysis that U.S. intelligence agencies obtained in 2016. ... And yet Durham spends roughly 20 pages trying to make hay out of the FBI not acting on that intercepted intelligence. In doing so, he included text messages and emails from Clinton campaign staffers that might — if you squint — fit the idea that there was a formal plan to fabricate a link between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Durham’s probe ends as it began: pointing at trees to obscure the forest Philip Bump, Washington Post Opinion: "What’s striking about the final Durham report is the extent to which it acts as though events were occurring in isolation. Durham spends an extended period considering the original predicate for the probe (code-named Crossfire Hurricane): The revelation from the Australian government that a Trump campaign official named George Papadopoulos had in May 2016 mentioned that Russia was in possession of material damaging Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. ... Trump had multiple members of his campaign term who were linked to Russia, including Page (who’d visited Moscow in early July) ... and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort (who would become a target of a separate probe soon after). He’d publicly asked Russia to hack Clinton’s email server in a news conference, doing so after it was already understood that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee’s network."

One more opinion piece from the Left: Trump weaponizes FBI-Russia report he demanded to keep fighting the election that never ends Stephen Collinson, CNN

FLAG THIS

Dated Polling, But Here's Where People Stand

In a survey dating back to 2019 — just after the Mueller report had been released — results found that almost half of the respondents still believed Trump worked with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election.

The 22-month-long investigation determined there was no collusion, but at that time 48% still believed “Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election" (Reuters/Ipsos).

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