As we detailed yesterday, ABC was forced to retract an epic mistake in their reporting that claimed contact between Trump staff (Flynn) and Russian officials 'druing the campaign' – correcting it to point out that it was in fact 'during the transition'.
President Trump tweeted his perspective, confirming the new 'facts' from ABC…
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
CNN were quick to mock the White House for saying that the Obama administration approved Flynn's contacts (and found someone all too eager to go on TV and attack their claims)… (via The Hill)
The White House said on Friday that it was the Obama administration that authorized former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during President Trump's transition, according to CNN.
Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Kislyak in the month before Trump took office, the first current or former Trump White House official brought down by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's election meddling.
James Clapper, who served as the Director of National Intelligence under Obama, said that the claim that the Obama administration authorized Flynn's contacts with Kislyak was "absurd," adding that the administration was concerned by the communications at the time.
“That’s absurd. That’s absolutely absurd," Clapper said on CNN.
Okay, James Clapper seems pretty clear that the Obama White House did not okay Flynn's shenanigans. http://pic.twitter.com/lEmGHJhquN
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 1, 2017
Confused yet?
So, given all the confusion, here is a clarifying source free of all possible bias – the Obama administration's State Department – confirming Trump and Flynn's story, and crushing Clapper's continued lies…from the archives:
Obama State Dept: We have no problem with General Flynn and the incoming administration contacting foreign officials http://pic.twitter.com/FwZDaHU8lO
— Jack Posobiec ???????? (@JackPosobiec) December 2, 2017
Transcript for the hard of hearing:
REPORTER: "This building [the Obama State Department] doesn't see anything necessarily inapprorpiate in contact between members of the incoming [Trump] administration and foreign officials, no matter what country they're from?"
OBAMA STATE DEPT SPOKESPERSON: "No, no…and again this has been ongoing. We have no problem with them doing such on their own."
Well, that's going to ruin a few talking points for tomorrow's Sunday morning political shows.
via http://ift.tt/2jE9Zee Tyler Durden