Trump admits he has no tapes of Comey meetings

[Tony Stark]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-admits-no-tapes-comey-meetings-173529790.html


Gabby Kaufman
Staff Writer
Yahoo News June 22, 2017

More than a month after threatening former FBI Director James Comey with the release of tapes of their conversations in the White House, President Trump said Thursday he does not have any such recordings.

In a pair of tweets, Trump wrote, “With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea…whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”

The statements came as the Senate was unveiling a controversial draft health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Days after Trump fired Comey in May, the president warned, also via Twitter, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”


James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

Thursday, the White House was asked if the president’s original tweet was an attempt to threaten Comey. “Not that I’m aware of,” deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders answered.

Although Trump did not record the pair’s conversations, Comey did — but in writing. The ousted FBI director testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that he kept detailed memos on his interactions with Trump and later directed a friend to leak those memos to the press, in hopes that it would trigger the appointment of a special counsel to take over the FBI’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the presidential election.


Comey said Trump’s original tweet suggesting there could be tapes of their conversations inspired him to publicize his own memos.

“The president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there’s not tapes,” Comey said. “I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night because it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape. And my judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didn’t do it myself, for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to ‘cause I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”

 

[Tony Stark]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...-lasting-damage-of-trumps-tapes-bluff/531306/

The Lasting Damage of Trump's 'Tapes' Bluff

The president’s attempt to intimidate James Comey didn’t merely backfire—it may also embolden hostile regimes to conclude his other threats are equally empty.

• David Frum
• 2:17 PM ET

This is a first for the Trump presidency: the first formal presidential retraction of a presidential untruth.

President Trump tweeted a warning to James Comey: The fired FBI director had better hope that no “tapes” existed that could contradict his account of what happened between the two men. Trump has now confessed that he had no basis for this warning. There were no such tapes, and the president knew it all along.

The tweet was intended to intimidate. It failed, spectacularly: Instead of silencing Comey, it set in motion the special counsel investigation that now haunts Donald Trump’s waking imagination.

But the failed intimidation does have important real world consequences.

First, it confirms America’s adversaries in their intensifying suspicion that the president’s tough words are hollow talk. The rulers of North Korea will remember the menacing April 4 statement from the Department of State that the United States had spoken enough about missile tests, implying that decisive actions lay ahead—and the lack of actions and deluge of further statements that actually followed.

The Chinese will remember Trump’s retreat from his “two China” messaging during the transition. They will have noted that Trump has entirely retreated from his insistence that they restrain North Korea or pay some price—seeing instead his “At least I know China tried!” tweet of June 20.

The Russians have buzzed American aircraft and severed the deconfliction hot line over Syria. They have paid no real price for their attack on the integrity of the 2016 election—indeed, the president continues to exonerate them and to argue for relaxed sanctions.

And while the administration continues on a collision course with Iran, even they must wonder whether there is really very much to fear from a president who has alienated the big European countries—notably Germany—who once joined U.S. sanctions but who are now increasing their exports to Iran at a rate of almost 30 percent a year.

“Never bluff.” Each outgoing president should write those words by hand in the letter of advice he leaves atop the Resolute desk for his incoming successor. Trump showed the whole world that when he sweats, he panics. That’s a lesson that will be remembered by the planet’s bad actors for however long this president holds office.

 

[Max E.]

Did he ever actually claim he had tapes? More fake news, he said "You better hope there are no tapes" and the media decided to blow it up, it was clearly a bluff on Trumps part designed to make sure Comey didnt start lying his Ossoff, like all the other "Anonymous sources" have been in the liberal media.

 

[Spike Trader]

Maybe , but he's clearly making a fool of himself,

people are still waiting for evidence of how Obama ''tapped his strings''.

 

[Tom B]

The first sentence of the article is a lie. No need to read the rest of your neocon hero's crap.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...-lasting-damage-of-trumps-tapes-bluff/531306/

The Lasting Damage of Trump's 'Tapes' Bluff

The president’s attempt to intimidate James Comey didn’t merely backfire—it may also embolden hostile regimes to conclude his other threats are equally empty.

• David Frum
• 2:17 PM ET

This is a first for the Trump presidency: the first formal presidential retraction of a presidential untruth.

President Trump tweeted a warning to James Comey: The fired FBI director had better hope that no “tapes” existed that could contradict his account of what happened between the two men. Trump has now confessed that he had no basis for this warning. There were no such tapes, and the president knew it all along.

The tweet was intended to intimidate. It failed, spectacularly: Instead of silencing Comey, it set in motion the special counsel investigation that now haunts Donald Trump’s waking imagination.

But the failed intimidation does have important real world consequences.

First, it confirms America’s adversaries in their intensifying suspicion that the president’s tough words are hollow talk. The rulers of North Korea will remember the menacing April 4 statement from the Department of State that the United States had spoken enough about missile tests, implying that decisive actions lay ahead—and the lack of actions and deluge of further statements that actually followed.

The Chinese will remember Trump’s retreat from his “two China” messaging during the transition. They will have noted that Trump has entirely retreated from his insistence that they restrain North Korea or pay some price—seeing instead his “At least I know China tried!” tweet of June 20.

The Russians have buzzed American aircraft and severed the deconfliction hot line over Syria. They have paid no real price for their attack on the integrity of the 2016 election—indeed, the president continues to exonerate them and to argue for relaxed sanctions.

And while the administration continues on a collision course with Iran, even they must wonder whether there is really very much to fear from a president who has alienated the big European countries—notably Germany—who once joined U.S. sanctions but who are now increasing their exports to Iran at a rate of almost 30 percent a year.

“Never bluff.” Each outgoing president should write those words by hand in the letter of advice he leaves atop the Resolute desk for his incoming successor. Trump showed the whole world that when he sweats, he panics. That’s a lesson that will be remembered by the planet’s bad actors for however long this president holds office.

 

[Cuddles]

The statements came as the Senate was unveiling a controversial draft health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.


That's the real story really

 

[Good1]

He just said "tapes", not 'tapes of our conversations'.

Trump may well have tapes, rather, of collusion between Comey, Lynch, Rice and Podesta.

There is such a tape. Trump MAY have it.

It would certainly wake Comey up in the middle of the night, if that's the moment he realizes Trump may have been referencing a/the collusion tape.

And that would be the moment Comey decides to start singing, which is what he did at the hearings.

He gave Trump enough to fire Mueller, but Trump too five D chess to realize he was given a gift.

 

[Spike Trader]

 

[TreeFrogTrader]

Did he ever actually claim he had tapes? More fake news, he said "You better hope there are no tapes" and the media decided to blow it up, it was clearly a bluff on Trumps part designed to make sure Comey didnt start lying his .

Correct. Indeed.