The 2016 US American Election Thread

[rubecube]

Reading that letter again, it's a bit of a stretch to say they're reopening the investigation, is it not?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by photon

All it took was a single tweet by Jason Chaffetz, lying that the case has been reopened, and the media have almost 100% completely picked that up as the narrative.

Am I misinterpreting the letter from the FBI director then?

I'm confused.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by photon

All it took was a single tweet by Jason Chaffetz, lying that the case has been reopened, and the media have almost 100% completely picked that up as the narrative.

huh? Comey wrote the chairmen of the case before any tweets went out.

[nik-]

The risk isn't losing determined Clinton supporters. It's losing the begrudging Clinton supporters, and the risk isn't them just voting for Trump instead, it's them not voting at all.

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Right but there's also a lot more undecideds at this point than a normal cycle. If they break heavy to Trump now she's in massive trouble.

I still think she wins. Trump is still widely considered to be an incredibly dangerous choice that would plummet that country into chaos if he were elected. I think most independents would likely end up voting 3rd party. Trump might gain some ground from this, but I'm not sure if it would be enough for him to win.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Honestly I don't believe there are many undecideds left to court. There are people ashamed to admit who they are voting for but I don't think they are 'undecided'.

For me, I understand that Hillary is a career politician, and a successful one, so there are obviously going to be skeletons in her closet. Were I an american voter, another investigation into Hillary wouldn't sway my vote because I wouldn't be voting for her I'd be voting against Trump.

If I was a Trump supporter I would be voting for Trump even harder than before but unfortunately no matter how hard I vote I can only vote once.

If I don't think Hillary is a crook, it's going to take more than an investigation to convince me otherwise. If all the murk around Hillary up to this point hasn't made me susceptible to questioning her ethics slightly then another investigation isn't going to tip the scales against her.

A well reasoned take....but you surely know the average American voter isn't going to go with a well reasoned take. Nearly 60% of people thought she should have been indicted to begin with. This will hurt and may actually be enough to cost her the election.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

A well reasoned take....but you surely know the average American voter isn't going to go with a well reasoned take. Nearly 60% of people thought she should have been indicted to begin with. This will hurt and may actually be enough to cost her the election.

So your saying not to count on the rational nature of the average voter?

Yeah that makes sense.

[photon]

So someone in Trump's campaign publicly tweets about apparent prior knowledge of hacked emails months in advance, hacked by Russia according to the US Government, and Comey refuses to tell Congress if the FBI is even investigating Trump's campaign or Stone.

But the FBI finds a few emails (or who knows how many, they'll refuse to answer questions to make it seem as bad as possible right?) and feels the need to update Congress in the most public and irresponsible way possible?

[Drak]

On the other hand, people in here were also claiming it was over when Hillary almost fainted.

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

So your saying not to count on the rational nature of the average voter?

If there were any rationality to this election, Trump wouldn't be the GOP nominee.

[photon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Am I misinterpreting the letter from the FBI director then?

I'm confused.

The letter says they're allowing the new emails to be reviewed to determine if they contain classified information and if they're relevant to the past investigation.

It doesn't say it's reopening anything. That completely came from Chaffetz's tweet.

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

huh? Comey wrote the chairmen of the case before any tweets went out.

Chaffetz's tweet said the case was reopened. It wasn't at least according to the letter Comey sent out.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Drak

On the other hand, people in here were also claiming it was over when Hillary almost fainted.

I don't think anyone said that, just that it was a bad look. This is significantly worse than that because that was tied into conspiracies about her health. This is an actual FBI investigation.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by nik-

The risk isn't losing determined Clinton supporters. It's losing the begrudging Clinton supporters, and the risk isn't them just voting for Trump instead, it's them not voting at all.

It's also the threat of a reinvigorated republican base that feels more invigorated to vote than it did yesterday. That said, 11 days is a long time to keep up a story that is just a question mark.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Robert Costa ‏@costareports 21m21 minutes ago
Trump: “I have great respect... that the FBI and [Justice] are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made"

https://twitter.com/costareports/sta...61588278771712

[photon]

Article in the past about Comey's actions around this issue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...a9d_story.html

Author (Matthew Miller is a former spokesman for the Department of Justice) tweets today:

I wrote a piece in July on why Comey's public comments about Clinton were such an inappropriate abuse of power. 1/

He flagrantly violated DOJ rules with his press conference. Then went on to break new ground discussing details of the case to Congress...2/

Followed by quickly releasing FBI 302's, something they rarely do, and which I doubt they will do for future high-profile cases. 3/

Each time, he either violated or seriously stretched DOJ rule & precedent. Press conference was the original sin, & it begat the rest. 4/

But today's disclosure might be worst abuse yet. DOJ goes out of its way to avoid publicly discussing investigations close to election. 5/

Not just public discussion either. Often won't send subpoenas or take other steps that might leak until after an election is over...6/

Why? Because voters have no way to interpret FBI/DOJ activity in a neutral way. Who is the target of an investigation? What conduct? 7/

This might be totally benign & not even involve Clinton. But no way for press or voters to know that. Easy for opponent to make hay over. 8/

Which takes us back to the original rule: you don't comment on ongoing investigations. Then multiply that times ten close to an election. 9/

For whatever reason (& there are many theories), Comey continues to ignore that. But only for Clinton. 10/

FBI is undoubtedly investigating links between the Russian hack, Manafort, & the Trump campaign. But aren't commenting on it. Good! 11/

They shouldn't be commenting on investigations! But that should apply to all. Instead Clinton consistently treated differently/worse. 12/12

https://twitter.com/matthewamiller/s...62733080485888

[Drak]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

https://twitter.com/costareports/sta...61588278771712

I thought everything was rigged?

[CaramonLS]

Some people are pointing to Kimdotcom's tweet 2 days ago which talked about a legal method for getting Clinton's emails via X-Keyscore. Probably a bit of a reach, but interesting given that they used this method in his case to see his emails that he sent and the overall timing of this.

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791364506425315328

[edslunch]

It reminds me of the RCMP investigation that was announced during the last Paul Martin campaign. It didn't conclude anything but reinforced the narrative that the Liberals were untrustworthy, and it tipped the election to Harper

[rubecube]

Man this thing just reeks of partisan garbage from Comey.

@Tom_Winter
NBC's Pete Williams reports that the case was technically never closed on the Clinton server. And that's normal and procedural.

Tom Winter ‏@Tom_Winter 14m14 minutes ago
NEW: NBC's Pete Williams reports that the e-mails Comey announced today were NOT originally withheld by Clinton or campaign.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by photon

So someone in Trump's campaign publicly tweets about apparent prior knowledge of hacked emails months in advance, hacked by Russia according to the US Government, and Comey refuses to tell Congress if the FBI is even investigating Trump's campaign or Stone.

But the FBI finds a few emails (or who knows how many, they'll refuse to answer questions to make it seem as bad as possible right?) and feels the need to update Congress in the most public and irresponsible way possible?

LOL, So you are saying its rigged?