Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't)

In which John discusses the Russian government's interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, allegations of collusion against members of Donald Trump's campaign, what is known about various Trump campaign officials' relationship to Vladimir Putin's regime, and also what we don't know. SOURCES BELOW:

CORRECTION: Nixon resigned before he was impeached.

Vladimir Putin personally oversaw efforts by the Russian government to affect the U.S. Presidential election outcome in favor of Donald Trump, according to both the Department of Homeland Security and the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence:

Trump campaign removed language from the Republican Party platform supporting Ukraine in their ongoing conflict with Russia:

The Putin regime engaged in a disinformation campaign, attempted to access several states' election data, and oversaw the hacking of the DNC and sent the DNC and John Podesta emails to wikileaks:

If you have any other source questions, feel free to ask in comments.

OVERALL HELPFUL THINGS:

[vlogbrothers]

CORRECTIONS AND Q'S A'ed:
1. NIXON WAS NEVER ACTUALLY IMPEACHED. He resigned. Articles of impeachment passed out of committee, but he resigned before the impeachment vote. MY MISTAKE.

2. Why didn't you talk about Ukraine's support of Hillary Clinton? This is a good and interesting question. There is some evidence that Ukraine's government sought to influence the election for Clinton (although it was not nearly as extensive as the meddling by the government of Russia). But as I say in the video, benefiting from a propaganda campaign is not a crime, and no evidence has emerged that any Clinton staffers received or accepted any "thing of value." So I didn't talk about it because it wasn't the topic of the video.

3. Why didn't you talk about the incredibly coincidental timing of "later in the summer" and Trump asking Russia to release Clinton's 33, 000 emails? Okay, so lots of people believe that it's not a coincidence that Donald Trump Jr. said "later in the summer" and then the DNC emails were indeed released later in the summer, and that it's not a coincidence that (then-candidate) Trump asked Russia to release Clinton's emails very shortly after the meeting between the Kremlin-connected Lawyer and Manafort/Kushner/Donald Trump Jr. And maybe it isn't a coincidence, but it seems perfectly possible to me that it IS a coincidence.

4. Did you ignore evidence that Putin wasn't behind the DNC hack? Not to my knowledge. The sources I link to above are very convincing. I think it's important to remember here that there is VERY BROAD CONSENSUS across political parties among U.S. leaders that the Russian government was behind the DNC hack, as well as the other facets of their campaign to influence the election. They've seen information that we don't have, and they ALL consider it to be credible. If there were more Republicans saying, "Wait a minute, " as was the case with Democrats and the intelligence about WMD in Iraq, I'd be more hesitant. As it is, I think it's just a very inconvenient fact for a lot of people's political narratives that Putin decided whose emails we got to read in the runup to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.

5. Why didn't you mention Carter Page or Roger Stone or et cetera? Because the video was already nine minutes long, and also because most of the people you're asking about left Trump's official campaign relatively early on. It's important to remember that these days a LOT of U.S. political consultants do business abroad. I don't think in and of itself that should be a red flag.

6. John Podesta was the chairman of Clinton's campaign, not of the DNC. MY MISTAKE.


I'll add more answers (and corrections, I'm sure) as they come in. Thanks for watching. -John

[IgnatRemizov]

"Connecting the dots can lead to a very misleading picture when you don't have many dots" - John Green

[leolover]

"So that's what we know... what we don't know is almost everything."

I'll be if that ain't the most accurate tagline for my life.

John, YOU are most certainly a thing of value. Thanks for the video

[DudeWhoSaysDeez]

As always, thank you for taking a non-biased approach to what we actually know in politics.
So much of it gets confused and mangled by the news

[rachelt]

As a person who studies law, I'm very glad that you emphasised the ambiguity of the phrase "thing of value" - the law is not black and white and it's very important that people remember this, so thankyou.

[midnightsg]

This comment section is going to be great and everyone is going to get along just fine.

[clarissebeauchamp]

Awesome. You do a truly fine job of presenting confusing, conflictual, contested information in a clear and concise way that comes across as very honest. I don't know how you do it, but I admire your your hard work. Thanks.

[knifetoucher]

My name is John Hank, so whenever those two make videos for each other, it feels like they are talking to me directly :)

[theeyehead]

Gotta love all the people saying "this didn't age well" when every fact in the video is still true. The only thing that "changed" is that the report found insufficient evidence to charge him with conspiracy, but did find overwhelming evidence of obstruction of justice... which is exactly the state of affairs described in this video.

[DavidJ]

Oh man, he said "Video Info" not doobly doo. This is srs bsns

[andyross]

"Nows my time to shine." --Thing of Value

[kubush]

Can you make an updated video? We have learned so much more in the last few months.

[Koop]

These are my favorite kinds of vlogbrothers videos. Facts only. No partisan swing or interpretation, no conclusions drawn, no fear-mongering, no demonizing, just facts.

[Rikku]

The comment sections are gonna suck, but I just want to say thank you, John, for making this video. It's important. And people are going to keep wanting to dismiss it, but it's important.

[xMasterxRazorx]

John I just want to thank you again, as a conservative, for how unbiased your reports on current events are. It is often quite difficult for me to learn much about what's going on in the world without a STRONG liberal or conservative bias on the telling of the events and sharing of information.

[mineola_]

Kudos to you for daring to go near this hornet's nest and staying as objective and honest as possible.

[kltyd]

Thank you John.

This is really thorough and good and helpful.

Thank you for 10+ years of consistently doing the often not glamorous work of trying to raise the level of discourse.

[MasterJediJason]

Thanks for doing this John. I know videos like this takes a lot of work and time and also will bring out all the trolls.

[mineola_]

I am digging this streak of more old school vlogbrothers style videos of thoughts from places and teaching things.

[Moonsong]

Guys I really like these explaining videos, this one was honestly calming. It's nice to have someone older than 20 but younger than 45 and good at teaching explain all this crazy politics. Thank you so much!