The 2016 US American Election Thread

[the_only_turek_fan]

If the FBI needed a separate search warrant to seize the Clinton emails on Weiner's computer, how did they take them? Did they get that warrant?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by photon

Lol Trump and Pence talking down Evan McMullin, saying he's a puppet and Pence says nobody ever heard of him.

McMullin's response: "Yes you’ve never heard of me because while you were harassing women at beauty pageants, I was fighting terrorists abroad."

A rare instance of words speaking louder than actions. McMullin is clearly giving them serious problems in Utah, otherwise why even acknowledge him?

[killer_carlson]

Surely the US Presidential election won't go full Notley in the last week .... could it?

[photon]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

If the FBI needed a separate search warrant to seize the Clinton emails on Weiner's computer, how did they take them? Did they get that warrant?

We don't know they're Clinton's emails, just that they may or may not be related to that investigation.

They encountered them while investigating the device on a separate investigation. It's possible to do that while not actually seeing the emails depending on how things are set up.

If it's a Windows machine and Huma logged into it with a separate ID, there's be a separate profile folder for her, and it'd be easy to see if there's a file that typically stores emails (A PST file for Outlook for example).

So it could have been that simple, notice that there's a profile on the laptop, do a quick look in the folder where Outlook PST files are, see a 200MB PST file, know there's emails in there, call the boss.

I haven't seen any reports that say the FBI have gotten a warrant for it at the time the letter came out, and many reports said that they hadn't as they hadn't looked at the emails content, only that they existed. But that's all from 'sources' in the FBI, officially we don't know anything beyond what was in the letter to Congress (which is basically nothing).

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

A rare instance of words speaking louder than actions. McMullin is clearly giving them serious problems in Utah, otherwise why even acknowledge him?

Yup, he's definitely making them nervous. McMullin taking Utah would be a pretty massive blow to Trump.

[photon]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Surely the US Presidential election won't go full Notley in the last week .... could it?

Haha there is a way! If McMullin takes Utah, and the rest of the election basically ends up in a tie with both Trump and Clinton under 270, Congress chooses the President by voting. They could vote in McMullin.

[photon]

The FBI agents investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server knew early this month that messages recovered in a separate probe might be germane to their case, but they waited weeks before briefing the FBI director, according to people familiar with the case.

...

Given that the Clinton email team knew for weeks that it may have cause to resume its work, it is unclear why investigators did not tell Comey sooner. People familiar with the case said they had known about the messages since soon after New York FBI agents seized a computer related to their investigation into former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who is alleged to have exchanged explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...f04_story.html

Also talks about the warrant.

Comey wrote in his letter to Congress, “We don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails,” and federal law enforcement officials have said in recent days that investigators on the Clinton email team still had yet to thoroughly review them. They would need a warrant to do so, and Yahoo News reported Saturday that they had not yet acquired one.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by photon

They would need a warrant to do so, and Yahoo News reported Saturday that they had not yet acquired one.

What the hell is Comey doing talking to the press about something before the warrant is even issued? The DOJ is going to eat him alive. He should get sacked for this. This is a character assassination attempt.

[photon]

Wow, even Jeanine Pirro is on Clinton's side on this one, that's surprising.

One of Hillary Clinton's harsher critics, Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, came to her defense Saturday.

In an opening statement on her show "Justice with Judge Jeanine," Pirro said the announcement Friday by FBI Director James Comey that the bureau will review newly found emails in connection with Clinton's private email server "disgraces and politicizes the FBI and is symptomatic of all that is wrong in Washington."

"Comey's actions violate not only long-standing Justice Department policy, the directive of the person that he works under, the attorney general," she said. "But even more important, the most fundamental rules of fairness and impartiality."


http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...ncement-230506

-----

A Trump supporter at a rally was chanting "Jew-S-A" (instead of U-S-A) directly at the press pen. Conway called him.. deplorable. Lol.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/30/politi...-a-deplorable/

-----

Related, 35.5% of Trump supporters active on twitter follow white nationalists twitter accounts like David Duke.

The same measure for active Clinton supporters is 0.16%.

http://esq.h-cdn.co/assets/16/43/147...ationalist.jpg

[photon]

Holy crap, if Trump wins he owes Manafort everything. Manafort made up a fake airplane mechanical problem which resulted in Pence being his running mate instead of Christie. If Christie had been, they'd be sunk right now.

Donald Trump initially offered the vice-presidential running-mate slot to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but then withdrew it, sources said.

With a week to go before the GOP convention in July, Trump had not made his choice among Christie, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

...

“Christie said he thinks he deserves it and he earned it,” a second Trump source said. Convinced, Trump made the #offer.

Christie “said all the BS that Trump likes to hear, and Trump said, ‘Yeah, sure I’m giving it to you.’ ”

That didn’t sit well with Manafort, who had arranged for Trump to meet Pence in Indianapolis on July 13, and fly back together to New York the next day for a formal announcement.

After Trump tentatively decided on Christie, Manafort told Trump his plane had a mechanical problem, campaign sources said, forcing Trump to spend another night in the Hoosier State. Pence then made his case to be Trump’s No. 2 over dinner as Trump’s advisers argued that Christie’s Bridgegate troubles would sink the campaign.

“Trump had wanted Christie but Bridgegate would have been the biggest national story,” a third Trump source said. “He’d lose the advantage of not being corrupt.”

Trump agreed to name Pence the next day and broke the news to Christie, saying it would “tear my family apart if I gave you VP,” a source said.

http://nypost.com/2016/10/30/trump-o...-rescinded-it/

EDIT: It is the NY Post so take it with a massive grain of salt.

[Looch City]

8 days until the election and we still see no tax records from Trump.

[photon]

Oh hey look it's mail from the Kansas GOP.



The mailer is being distributed weeks after three white men were arrested in Garden City, Kansas and charged for allegedly plotting to bomb an apartment complex where many Somali immigrants live and worship. The criminal complaint, citing a confidential source, details how the heavily armed men referred to Somalis as “cockroaches” and women dressed in traditional garb as “####ing raghead bitches.”

“The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” one of the suspects said, according to the complaint.

“A positive issue for Republicans”

The Kansas Republican Party justifies its Islamophobic messaging on the basis of focus groups that indicated it’s a winning issue.

“We did polling and focus groups, and the one issue that got overwhelming positive response and was associated with Republicans was safety,” Clay Barker, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, told the Wichita Eagle.

https://thinkprogress.org/kansas-rep...r-a817f39766f5
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-...111088287.html

[direwolf]

Sounds like this latest email crap isn't going to move the needle all that much, according to a poll conducted by the Washington Post:

A majority of all likely voters say they are unmoved by the FBI's announcement Friday that it may review additional emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state. Just more than 6 in 10 voters say the news will make no difference in their vote, while just more than 3 in 10 say it makes them less likely to support her; 2 percent say they are more likely to back her as a result.

Does this issue make you (more) likely to vote for Clinton, (less) likely to vote for Clinton, or does it make no difference in your vote?*

Less likely: 34%
No Difference: 63%
More likely: 2%
No opinion: 1%

Roughly two-thirds of those who say the issue makes them less likely to support Clinton are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents (68 percent), while 17 percent lean Democratic and 9 percent are independents who lean toward neither party.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...mepage%2Fstory

[photon]

Interesting article around the 4th Amendment and the new emails, how likely is it that this will end up in court?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...intons-emails/

EDIT: And Trump of course continues on in his own world.

"Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton. Very dishonest media!" - Trump tweet

[Drak]

Trump is over 20 percent now on 538. He was down to what, 13 percent or lower last week? That's quite the gain.

[Minnie]

Paul Krugman melts down over FBI's Clinton announcement

Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist and New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman slammed the FBI's "disgraceful" announcement Friday that it will reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

"It's bad enough having the media do the 'raises questions,' substance-free innuendo thing. Worse when the FBI director does it. Disgraceful," Krugman, a Clinton supporter, wrote on Twitter.

"Comey needs to provide full info immediately. Otherwise he has clearly made a partisan intervention, betraying his office."

James Comey, the FBI director, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders on Friday that investigators had learned of "the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation" that compelled agents to continue their probe, which had ended in July with no charges recommended against Clinton.

"The FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant," Comey wrote. "And I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work."

Krugman condemned how Comey handled the entire ordeal, calling his behavior "inexcusable" and "grotesque."

He added that "so far this is a story about Comey and his behavior. We know nothing at all about what if anything this has to do with HRC."

"The announcement has done measurable damage to the Clinton campaign," Krugman continued. "Which was predictable. Comey behavior inexcusable. If Pete Williams is right, this is probably nothing important. Yet here we are, with a potentially huge political impact. The bed has been fouled, and can't be un-fouled."

NBC's Williams had reported earlier that none of the new emails had been found on Clinton's private server.

Krugman was not alone. Many quickly condemned the FBI's handling of the announcement that it would reopen the investigation.

"I have zero faith that anyone will handle this responsibly," former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau wrote. "It's insane. [Comey] at least owes the country a press briefing — anything more than a vague letter."

"Director Comey should give a more complete explanation. Is this reviewing newly found emails? Is this reopening? Too much at stake," wrote John Weaver, the former campaign strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Democratic National Committee Interim Chair Donna Brazile called Comey's letter "irresponsible."

"The FBI has a solemn obligation to remain neutral in political matters – even the faintest appearance of using the agency’s power to influence our election is deeply troubling," she wrote in a statement.

[ResAlien]

Anecdotal but Trump is really pushing ads now. Watching the Broncos game and I've seen multiple Trump ads peddling fear and a ridiculous vision of America as some post apocalyptic version of The Purge at all times. I haven't seen any Hillary ads, but I think CO is pretty firmly in her pocket so maybe no point in spending more money here.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Drak

Trump is over 20 percent now on 538. He was down to what, 13 percent or lower last week? That's quite the gain.

Sort of. The 538 model leaves a high degree of uncertainty in the outcomes. So even with a 7 point lead you only have an 87.5% chance of winning. The change in odds has been Hillary going form a 6-7 point lead to a 5-6 point lead losing somewhere around 1.5 pts.

She is up in polling more than any recent winner of a presidential election.

[direwolf]

With so much pressure on Comey right now from both sides, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a press briefing from him in the next day or two. You can't just drop a bomb like that right before one of the most important elections in history and then sit on the sidelines in complete silence. He's inserted himself into this election in a big way, and he needs to explain why he made that decision. At the very least he should provide an explanation for the vagueness of his letter and be more specific about the nature of the investigation. As Clinton herself said yesterday, put it all out on the table so that both sides (and the public) can take a look for themselves and make an informed decision about whether or not it's significant.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Anecdotal but Trump is really pushing ads now. Watching the Broncos game and I've seen multiple Trump ads peddling fear and a ridiculous vision of America as some post apocalyptic version of The Purge at all times. I haven't seen any Hillary ads, but I think CO is pretty firmly in her pocket so maybe no point in spending more money here.

Interesting. He did say he was going on an ad splurge the last week of the election. Guess he was honest about something.