2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Andalusian girls]

I am curious if anyone knows more about campaign finance laws than I do and can any light to the fact that the Trump campaign sent solicitation e-mails to non-Americans? Isn't that illegal?

it is a clear violation of federal election law to solicit or accept donations from foreign nationals, but as far as i know the FEC has taken no position on it and i imagine is unlikely to come down harshly as he apparently raised no actual money from the e-mails and can easily claim they were sent on accident, which they may very well have been given the somewhat random foreign politicians they targeted.

[Tymon]

What's damaging to her campaign is that this is something you can easily claim disqualifies her from office. Comey saying "This is not what we are deciding right now" implies that they may perhaps decide on possible sanctions or clearance revocations in the future.

I'm very interested to see how the DNC handles this. Indeed she wasn't indicted, but this is still the single most damaging thing to happen to her by far. Comey spent 15 minutes completely shaming her.

[Krandor]

It pretty much takes away the Hillary camp's argument that Trump would be reckless without opening itself up to obvious "pot calling the kettle black" counterpoints.

[Salodin]

It pretty much takes away the Hillary camp's argument that Trump would be reckless without opening itself up to obvious "pot calling the kettle black" counterpoints.

This is probably the worst she'll get. It takes away a big piece of ammo she had over him.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[archibaldcrane]

how did you nerds not lead with this



0% chance she gets prosecuted.

Lynch already said she would abide by the FBI recommendation after Clintonplanemeetinggate or whatever, so yeah that's a wrap.

[Sho]

Indictment or no, this was definitely the most damaging thing of her campaign, Bill's "meeting" with Loretta Lynch included. I can tell you 100% if she was indicted she would be done.

Most of the talking pundit heads will still say that she is disqualified from the presidency and still will attempt to shame her at every turn over this. Even the fact that the FBI completed their questioning of Clinton JUST IN TIME for day 1 of Obama & Clinton campaigning together reeks of political machinations within the Democratic party.

The hypocrisy coming from the right is pretty unreal however. Trump is no saint himself.

[Krandor]

Giant Douche vs Turd Sandwich 2016

[Inshiya]

"Immensely qualified candidate with the highest fact checked honesty rating" vs. "Race-baiting bigot with the lowest fact checked honesty rating"

But hey, let's keep perpetuating the "lesser of two evils" fallacy.

[Krandor]

Oh from the website owned by one of Hillary's donors? Yeah that sounds legit.

The highest disapproval ratings of any major party candidate in what, 60 years is owned by Trump and Hillary. That's about as clear as "lesser of two evils" in politics can get.

[Sho]

"Immensely qualified candidate with the highest fact checked honesty rating" vs. "Race-baiting bigot with the lowest fact checked honesty rating"

But hey, let's keep perpetuating the "lesser of two evils" fallacy.

Only because it's true -- Clinton still has her skeletons in the closet, which don't include Benghazi. Like Whitewater, Clinton Foundation speeches, & standing behind her husband with NAFTA (which will likely be Trump's final line of attack against her). There's also small time shit like Foggy Bottom and Sidney Blumenthal being a lowkey informal adviser to the family outside of Obama's wishes. She also covertly paved her way through the DNC (since 2008) to ensure she'd be the eventual Democratic candidate in 2016. There's a reason why her she still has low numbers when it pertains to trust issues.

Still, she is worlds better than someone like Trump who uses overt race baiting, bigotry and misogyny on his march to the Presidency.

With that said, watching FOX News is AMAZING right now. So many angry pundits, lol.

[Krandor]

Still, she is worlds better than someone like Trump who uses overt race baiting, bigotry and misogyny on his march to the Presidency.

Indictment or no, personally I consider this whole email thing worse then any of what you listed here. Her handling of classified information being labeled as "extremely careless" (to say nothing of the specifics Comey went in to) with no punishment is a huge slap in the face to anyone who handles that kind of stuff.

I'm not going to vote for either of them (Johnson 2016 bitches) but I definitely still view her as worse then Trump.

And I believe most polls view Trump as more trustworthy then Clinton, even if they plan to vote for her over the Oompa Loompa

[Inshiya]

I think a lot of people have never really worked with classified material, or understand how the classification process works.

[Sho]

Indictment or no, personally I consider this whole email thing worse then any of what you listed here. Her handling of classified information being labeled as "extremely careless" (to say nothing of the specifics Comey went in to) with no punishment is a huge slap in the face to anyone who handles that kind of stuff.

I'm not going to vote for either of them (Johnson 2016 bitches) but I definitely still view her as worse then Trump.

And I believe most polls view Trump as more trustworthy then Clinton, even if they plan to vote for her over the Oompa Loompa

You've got me there, it's still a very bad and black mark on her record. Actually on FOX Rudy Giuliani is going into what you said with legalese right now. I agree with the part that if it wasn't Clinton, lesser people would have had the book thrown at them with it being a felony (also sounds like this will be FOX's big trumpet to blow against her going into November).

While I do find Trump very intelligent in his channeling the darkside of the American people to his gain, it's really unsettling to me that he can do it in such a manner that is below the dignity and decorum of the office of POTUS. I'm still in with Clinton knowing that it'll effectively be a 3rd Obama Administration.

[kuronosan]

I have a feeling you don't really know what you're saying when you call Hillary honest.That being said, this must be a huge blow to Busters.

[Galkaeater]

"Immensely qualified candidate with the highest fact checked honesty rating" vs. "Race-baiting bigot with the lowest fact checked honesty rating"

But hey, let's keep perpetuating the "lesser of two evils" fallacy.

Using politifact to compare candidates is retarded

[Sho]

I have a feeling you don't really know what you're saying when you call Hillary honest.That being said, this must be a huge blow to Busters.

Guess that wasn't directed at me. That was a hell of a slow response to Inshiya, lol.

[archibaldcrane]

Curious if the combination of her devastating non-indictment and the RNC convention will produce enough of a bump to at least temporarily put Trump ahead in the horse race polling averages.

[Krandor]

The way it was presented was basically a best case scenario for him (given the whole "Bernie polls better then Hillary against Trump" narrative). Trump, his supporters, and any Hillary detractors have been given a gigantic amount of fuel and talking points direct from the mouth of the FBI.

"Extremely Careless"
"sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries"
"it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account"

To say nothing of points that can be inferred about a rigged system etc etc

[Gredival]

More anti-science from Bernie, reposted this on his social media about the evils of GMOs because they are made by corporations.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-bl...-about-the-gmo

[Sho]

100% certain people will make the "Extremely Careless" = "Extremely Negligent" argument in the coming days/weeks.

The narrative that will change post FBI non-indictment is one that will allow Dems who were iffy on Clinton to go all in, especially now that her champion Obama is on the trail with her. She's going to be looking real good if Sanders gets behind her post DNC convention.