The joy of short and long twitter on that SHS presser.
Ana NavarroVerified account @ananavarro 4h4 hours ago
More
What the hell is Sarah Huckabee Sanders talking about? 2 Trump associates indicted, 1 plead guilty and she’s singing “99 Beers on the Wall”
Seth AbramsonVerified account
(THREAD) This is an itemized list of every lie Sarah Huckabee Sanders told America on behalf of the President in her press briefing today.
1/ Trump has no intention or plan to fire Mueller. FALSE. Trump told the NYT that if Mueller crosses a certain "red line" he could be fired.
61 replies . 892 retweets 3,935 likes
2/ The charges and plea announced today had "nothing to do with the President's campaign or campaign activity." FALSE. And here's why:
3/ Manafort lied to the FBI while Trump's Campaign Manager and used his illegally gotten, Putin-linked funds to work for Trump "for free."
4/ So Trump was the direct beneficiary—to the tune of saving many millions in consulting fees—of the fact Manafort got money from Russia.
5/ All Papadopoulos' lies—which he's plead to—involved high-ranking Trump officials, Trump campaign activity, and protecting Trump himself.
6/ "There's clear evidence" Clinton colluded with Russian intelligence. FALSE. This is false on almost too many grounds to mention. A start:
7/ Clinton's camp continued payments started by Republicans to a firm that contracted with another firm whose sources were non-FSB.
8/ The dossier "influenced" the election. FALSE. Barring 1 article, the dossier wasn't reported on in any significant way until January '17.
9/ The dossier "smears" the President. FALSE. Every piece of information in the dossier that can be confirmed so far has been confirmed.
10/ Clinton's camp didn't know what research they would receive and had nothing to do with its collection. And—the FBI believes the dossier.
11/ There's been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. FALSE. Not only is the Papadopoulos plea a smoking gun—Sessions' perjuries were too.
12/ Indeed—both the ongoing secret sanctions negotiations between Trump and Russia and the GOP platform change were the result of collusion.
13/ Papadopoulos is in trouble only for not telling the truth. FALSE. The WH implies the underlying activities were all okay. They were not.
14/ Papadopoulos plead to Making False Statements so that he wouldn't have to plead to greater charges and could cooperate with the FBI.
15/ There's no "official capacity" in which the campaign was involved with Papadopoulos' acts. FALSE—his actions were campaign-sanctioned.
16/ The Manafort/Gates indictments deal with crimes in a time "well before" the Trump campaign existed. FALSE. Both were ongoing in 2015.
17/ Papadopoulos had a "limited" campaign role. FALSE. He was a top adviser and a primary liaison to other nations on Trump's Russia policy.
18/ Papadopoulos went overseas for Trump and was one of the only NatSec team members kept on when the team disbanded in late July of 2016.
19/ Papadopoulos was giving interviews on Trump's Russia policy to Russian media as late—possibly later—than late September of 2016.
20/ All told, George Papadopoulos worked for Trump for at least seven months of the eleven-month campaign primary/general "voting" season.
22/ Papadopoulos' outreach on the Kremlin's behalf was "repeatedly denied." FALSE. At all turns he was openly, clearly encouraged by emails.
23/ Papadopoulos had no role in extra-campaign outreach. FALSE—he went to Israel for Trump, talked to Russian media for Trump and much else.
24/ And of course we know from his sworn plea docs that "high-ranking campaign officials" authorized him to speak to (other) Kremlin agents.
25/ "We expect Mueller to conclude his work soon." FALSE. Recent articles confirm Trump and his lawyers are battening down for a long haul.
26/ Sanders says Trump's last Manafort contact was in February. TRUE/FALSE? In this case it doesn't matter—because it's damning. Here's why:
27/ We were told Manafort called Priebus just before the inauguration—to urge Trump to release dirt on HRC—because he couldn't access Trump.
28/ The campaign wanted to distance Trump from Manafort and the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting by saying Manafort could not access Trump.
29/ Today Sanders inadvertently revealed that Manafort was still able to talk to Trump—and we know his subject was "HRC dirt"—in February.
30/ Sanders now says that Donald Trump can't recall anything about his March 31st, 2016 meeting at Trump International Hotel in DC. FALSE.
31/ Trump is always lauding his perfect memory and appears to have excellent recall for (for instance) any person who has ever slighted him.
32/ Moreover, others at the TIHDC meeting have excellent recall: they told The Daily Caller Trump was "flattered" by Papadopoulos' proposal.
33/ Sanders says she's had "no conversations" with Trump on pardons. FALSE. We know Trump has discussed the pardon power with his top aides.
34/ Sanders: it's "not clear how Sessions could be said to be involved" in the Papadopoulos case. FALSE—Sessions was the kid's supervisor.
35/ Moreover, Sessions received at least some—maybe all—of Papadopoulos' March (and April, and May) emails. And he heard him at the TIHDC.
36/ Sanders says she's not sure when Trump first heard of the stolen emails. Possibly TRUE, but Papadopoulos implies it was in April 2016.
37/ Sanders: the indictments/plea "don't have anything to do with us." FALSE. See preceding tweets—this is, simply put, an outrageous lie.
38/ Papadopoulos "volunteered" for Trump's NatSec Advisory Committee. FALSE. He was recruited by Sam Clovis; he didn't come out of nowhere.
39/ This push to make Papadopoulos—an unqualified kid in touch with Trump's pal Millian—sound like a mere intern is absolutely outrageous.
40/ Papadopoulos was chosen by Trump's team, then featured by Trump in print/pictures, then promoted by Trump to a larger Russia role.
41/ Trump's NatSec Committee "met only once"? FALSE. They were in constant contact via email threads—so this is a deeply misleading claim.
42/ "He [Papadopoulos] wasn't responded to in any way when he reached out"—FALSE—for months he was responded to throughout the campaign.
43/ Sanders says the dossier is "fake information" and the Clinton campaign knew that. FALSE. The dossier is substantially verified and...
44/ ...everyone who's looked at the dossier, including Steele, Fusion GPS, FBI, and others in law enforcement have believed it to be true.
45/ So the idea the Clinton campaign was in a position to know "false" a dossier that (a) is true and (b) the FBI believed true, is crazy.
46/ Trump was "without a lot of reaction" when he learned of Mueller's indictments. FALSE. And—uh—I'm just going to post this picture here:
47/ BREAKING NEWS—thread interruption—Manafort's bail has been set at $10 million. Remember, he may have to make a showing to court to post.
48/ BREAKING NEWS (cont)—In financial crime cases, the court must know the bail money isn't a fruit of the crime. Mueller loves this bail.
49/ BREAKING NEWS (cont. 2)—As I noted earlier today, any bail that keeps Manafort behind bars ups the pressure on him to cooperate now.
50/ SHS says when Trump hired Papadopoulos, the latter was a "seasoned operative." FALSE. All accounts say he lacked meaningful credentials.
51/ "We have indications" the probe will wrap up soon, Sanders says. FALSE. They're relying on Christie, it seems, who has/cites no sources.
52/ Trump called Papadopoulos an "excellent guy" in a pro forma way. FALSE. He said his team was the best, and "sold" Papadopoulos as such.
53/ The other possibility is that he was lying about knowing who Papadopoulos was—which he was claiming to—but that's not the WH line now.
54/ Apologies to all—another break for an interview, and then I'll finish up this thread. Anyone been counting up the Huckabee Sanders lies?
55/ Sanders says she's "not aware" of Trump aides speaking with Papadopoulos about Kremlin meetings. FALSE—she read Papadopoulos' affidavit.
56/ As a WH Press Secretary publicly pledged to telling media the truth, she isn't entitled to pretend she hasn't read Papadopoulos' plea.