OT: I'm sure you wingnuts will call it "fake news"...

[Alan Baker]

...but it is damning:

'A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of
his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy —
made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on
Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the
beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy
(R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016,
exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a
fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping
the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore
the Republicans present to secrecy.'

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html>

Oh, and I LOVED this:

'When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a
spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a
spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this
is absurd and false.”

After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange,
Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old
exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority
leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members
were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership
team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our
election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.”

“This was a failed attempt at humor,” Sparks said.'

Straight from "false" to "Oh! Did I say false? I meant to say it
happened but it was just an attempt at humor!"



<https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/national/read-the-transcript-of-the-conversation-among-gop-leaders-obtained-by-the-post/2209/?tid=a_inl>

Last page (in it's entirety):

[Unintelligible]

McCarthy: There's...there's two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher
and Trump...[laughter]...swear to God.


Laugh that off, wingnuts.

:-)


Ryan: This is off the record...[laughter]...NO LEAKS...[laughter]...alright?


[Laughter]


Ryan: This is how we know we're a real family here.


Scalise: That's how you know that we're tight.


[Laughter]


Ryan: What's said in the family stays in the family.

<end>

That's