Oh hey Frink. Getting the facts right isn’t apologetics.
Puggo, the quote is also in the articles I linked. The context and the understanding is what’s missing from the current discussion. Thus the NYT expressed a different understanding 2 years ago.
dahmage, that’s true. But asking someone to engage in future hacking is different from asking for information that’s already in the hands of shady people.
Consider that asking someone to steal the Pentagon Papers = bad; wanting them published = less bad.
You sound like you’re grasping for reasons why Trump’s public call for Russia to get directly involved in American politics, through shady means and for sinister purposes, isn’t really as bad as it sounds. It’s like you’re saying “If you think about it, he didn’t really say what you think he said, and so he’s really not that bad a guy. Especially compared to Obama.”
I mean, seriously? Come on.
Whatever it “sounds like,” it was the NYT that originally recognized that Trump wasn’t asking Russia to hack the Democrats. As I said: what Trump said was inappropriate and encouraging to our adversaries to do bad things.
This is simply a matter of accuracy and honesty and not what it “sounds” like I’m trying to say. When my posts are not so selectively read, this is all very clear. The fact that the NYT now asserts that Trump was directly asking for the Russians to hack the Dems, contrary to what the NYT previously understood shows an agenda at work. My attempt to be clear about what actually happened while at the same time recognizing Trump was wrong isn’t apologetics or whatever else.