(THREAD) The Don Jr.-Wikileaks DMs read like a media organization promoting its published material, trying to ingratiate itself to a campaign, and asking for favors (unsuccessfully). Nothing more. That's not defending Don Jr or Wikileaks. It's defending objectivity.
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The two things attracting the most attention are: 1) Wikileaks telling Jr. to check out a PAC-run anti-Trump site. Don Jr. said he'd ask around. But checking out an opposing PAC is normal, and there's no evidence the campaign did anything illicit to check them out. 2/x
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Also attracting attention: 2) Wikileaks told Don Jr. to check out something they published. 15 minutes later, Trump Sr. tweeted about it. But that material was already published. There's no indication they discussed it beforehand, or coordinated the timing of its release. 3/x
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Websites and other media organizations (across the whole spectrum) contact campaigns all the time, trying to draw attention to their published material. And campaigns highlight publicly available information that fits their narrative. That's not unusual. 4/x
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Compare this to Don Jr.'s emails setting up a meeting in Trump tower with people he believed to be representatives of the Russian government in possession of secret material. As I wrote about in this article, that was a big deal. 5/xhttps://arcdigital.media/thanks-to-donald-trump-jr-im-no-longer-a-trump-russia-skeptic-a34443eaba8b …
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And compare Jr.-Wikileaks DMs to the Papadopoulos emails. As I discussed in this article, Papadopoulos set up secret meetings with Russian government representatives, and discussed it with (and said he had approval from) top Trump campaign officials. https://arcdigital.media/americas-on-a-collision-course-with-a-constitutional-crisis-7b732a35c6fc … 6/x
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Don Jr. and Papadopoulos' emails setting up meetings with Russian government representatives look like coordination. Back-and-forth. Admitted Russian gov. Approval from senior people. The Don Jr.-Wikileaks correspondence doesn't have that. 7/x
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The Trump team lied about this. But they lie about so many things, both innocuous and incriminating. Them lying, on its own, doesn't prove anything. 8/x
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Objectivity, evidence-based reasoning, and Truth are under assault. Insinuation, motivated reasoning, and conspiracy theorizing contribute to that assault, no matter what cause they serve Others doing it isn't an excuse. It's even more reason to objectively follow the facts (END)
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Replying to @NGrossman81
I'm glad someone else is saying this too. Although WikiLeaks seem to be connected to Russia, the DMs didn't demonstrate anything illegal. We need to focus on the actual illegal activity of the campaign.
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Exactly.
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