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“As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law,..."

upon a closer read of the article it's pretty clear that no laws were broken. so treason being a law, this isn't treason.

scotchandcigar said:
The degree to which you'll justify anything this disturbed man does is troubling. You were all jacked about the most benign actions conducted by his political opponents.
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yea, cause i wanted him to win.

so far as president i can only point to one thing trump has done that bothers me: the transgender school bathroom guidelines.
 
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JHDK said:
“As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law,..."

upon a closer read of the article it's pretty clear that no laws were broken. so treason being a law, this isn't treason.
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With all due respect, I've spent my entire career in this area. I don't need to copy & paste other people's editorializing. It's abuse of power, because he didn't consult with anyone. It would literally be treason for anyone else; for him it's technically not absolute treason, but still a treasonous act.

Whether or not you agree with his agenda (and I challenge anyone to tell me what that is), you can't deny that he acts without thought. Why else would he fire the guy leading an investigation against him?
 
Gentlemen, don't make this a my guy vs your guy thing. It's exactly the kind of bickering we've been trying to avoid all along.
 
Trump telling Russia about how we get intelligence on ISIS is significant because this is information we don't even share with our allies. It sounds like he spilled the beans not to advance US interests but just because he's a blabbermouth.

As Paul Ryan once tweeted: "It's simple: Individuals who are ‘extremely careless’ w/ classified info should be denied further access to it."
 
scotchandcigar said:
With all due respect, I've spent my entire career in this area. I don't need to copy & paste other people's editorializing. It's abuse of power, because he didn't consult with anyone. It would literally be treason for anyone else; for him it's technically not absolute treason, but still a treasonous act.

Whether or not you agree with his agenda (and I challenge anyone to tell me what that is), you can't deny that he acts without thought. Why else would he fire the guy leading an investigation against him?
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(i know inflection can be hard to interpret in print sometimes so just know that if any of this appears sarcastic or combative i swear that is not my intent.)

ok so this is your area of expertise, that's neat because i've had fun pondering how exactly this presidential power works over the past couple hours and have some questions.

why is it a treasonous act? if the president has the authority to declassify just about anything he wants then doesn't the simple fact that he holds that office exempt him from the law that applies to everyone else? yes i agree (if this actually happened) he likely didn't consult with anyone and it just came out during conversation. why does that matter? my assumption is that this power to declassify material doesn't come with the caveat that he needs to discuss it with others first. yes that would be the professional thing to do, and i agree with meme that he probably just spilled it cause he is a blabbermouth, but that is the president's prerogative.

also, how does it work for the rest of the president's staff in the room? once the president shared this info is it then declassified for everyone or is it just declassified when the president says it but remains classified for everyone else? i wonder this because the wapo source shared this classified(?) info with the paper. they decided not to print the details but wasn't the source committing treason by telling the paper?

i truly find it fascinating to think about. lets say we are in the same room and you are the president and i am a member of your staff. if i speak first and say this classified info i am committing treason but then if you say the exact same thing right after me you are doing nothing wrong at all because the law says that's your right at POTUS.
 
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JHDK said:
why is it a treasonous act? if the president has the authority to declassify just about anything he wants then doesn't the simple fact that he holds that office exempt him from the law that applies to everyone else? yes i agree (if this actually happened) he likely didn't consult with anyone and it just came out during conversation. why does that matter?
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It matters because of the consequences. Revealing our intelligence gathering secrets puts people at risk. It means people will die. It weakens the US's position in the world. It gives an advantage to ISIS and Russia.

You seem to be ignoring the consequences and focusing on legality. It's legal for the POTUS to do all kinds of horrible things. That's always been that way. That's why we are supposed to elect someone capable of using that power wisely.
 
Revealing highly classified information to our most capable adversaries should not be done. Just because something in the constitution (or wherever) says that the president has a certain authority, does not mean that doing so will suddenly change the nature of the information.

Aside from all the consequences Meme listed, there's also the fact that a large part of our defense budget is spent developing these advances in intelligence, technology, and information gathering. To give away that info to the very people we've intended to conceal it from, invalidates the investment made for that information or capability.
 
Embroiled in controversies, Trump seeks boost on foreign trip| Reuters

Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span.

"He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos."

National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump's name in "as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he's mentioned," according to one source, who relayed conversations he had with NSC officials.

Trump likes to look at a map of the country involved when he learns about a topic.

"He likes to visualize things," said a senior administration official. "The guy's a builder. He has spent his whole life looking at architectural renderings and floor plans."
 
scotchandcigar said:
Embroiled in controversies, Trump seeks boost on foreign trip| Reuters

Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span.

"He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos."

National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump's name in "as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he's mentioned," according to one source, who relayed conversations he had with NSC officials.

Trump likes to look at a map of the country involved when he learns about a topic.

"He likes to visualize things," said a senior administration official. "The guy's a builder. He has spent his whole life looking at architectural renderings and floor plans."
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They can keep him
 
The Onion‏Verified account@TheOnion 5m5 minutes ago
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Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump Discuss Their Ideas With The President http://trib.al/Ym0owCE #TrumpDocuments

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Republican candidate charged with assault after 'body-slamming' Guardian reporter | US news | The Guardian

How things got weird as Montana's special election entered its final hours | Interactive | bozemandailychronicle.com

this is the best thing to ever happen to the reporter. day before the election he gets the biggest possible story and he is at the center of it, everyone who even lightly follows the news heard the name ben jacobs today. and he can now sue the guy and cash in. i imagine the guardian is pretty happy about it too.
 
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