Question from MSNBC host asked earlier today: And to your point about saying 'one political campaign should not be able to use this kind of information against another political campaign,' should then in the spirit of that not a political campaign be prevented from reaching out to a foreign entity such as Russia to get information on another campaign.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH): It's interesting right now, people have said it's treasonous for someone to sit down and talk to a foreign national who's offering information on their opponent but apparently it's not treasonous for Hillary Clinton to hire a foreign national to dig up dirt on her opponent.
1. According to Turner, Republicans see no difference between a hostile foreign nation like Russia and its spy agency FSB and historical American allies like the United Kingdom and its spy agency MI6
2. It was a CONSERVATIVE organization that initially hired Fusion GPS (who hired former British spy Christopher Steele) to run opposition research on Donald Trump.
3. While Republicans hope this bogus memo proves, I guess, that Republicans in the FBI are somehow biased against other Republicans, it instead proves the Trump campaign did in fact collude with a hostile foreign nation.
George Papadopoulos, Trump campaign adviser, who has already plead guilty in the Mueller investigation was the catalyst for the Trump investigation. According to one of the last lines of the memo, "The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBA gaent Pete Strzok."
4. Precedent has been set. Republicans in the House, with the cooperation of a Republican President has released classified information, despite protestations from the intelligence community. Imagine the ridiculous volume of Republican outrage had a Democrat, say a President Hillary Clinton, with the cooperation of House Democrats, had done this.
5. But yes, Mike Turner, it is treasonous. The Republican Party is the party of treason.
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