Every time the pee-tape story is about to slip out of my mind, Trump brings it up in a public forum. In 2021, he announced, “I’m not into golden showers,” while addressing the National Republican Senatorial Committee retreat, though no one had asked. He brought it up during at least two separate speeches he delivered in Ohio last fall. And he mentioned it again on Saturday during a campaign rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
I never thought it was false. It’s entirely in line with Russia to use both the carrot and the stick at the same time. The carrot was obvious: help Trump become president. The stick was also obvious: release tapes of him getting peed on by prostitutes. Most people - even his fans, hell especially his fans - probably wouldn’t care, but Trump really cares about his image, to an unhinged level.
The better question to me is what dirt they might have had on Boris Johnson. Complete speculation, but I think one of his many bastard children was fathered to an underage girl - that would be just about the only thing that would make BoJo step into line.
The only optimistic point I have is that Russia doesn’t respect its assets and sees them as traders to their countries. That means when they are past their usefulness Russia will burn them and brag about how powerful they are. For once in an intelligence operation we may actually get to see the dirty details revealed about these bastards.
What makes you think they had dirt on BoJo? He was fairly happy to support Ukraine, so they can’t have had too great a hold on him.
Mostly just how subservient he was to Dominic Cummings when he got into office. Cummings used to live in Russia before he popped up on the UK political scene (first as Gove’s advisor, then Brexit, then Boris) and yet for some reason Boris went AWOL and left Cummings filling his role. The first COBRA meetings for Covid were chaired by Cummings. Then towards the end, Cummings toured the UK’s nuclear weapons facilities.
I’m aware Cummings has been throwing everything about Covid on Boris in the recent enquiries, but frankly I don’t buy it. Cummings clearly wore the pants in their relationship - and that was very strange for someone like Boris.
Boris also was not hard that on Russia. The sanctions they talked about making at the start excluded Russia’s biggest bank for 28 days - which ended up coinciding with Russia’s first withdrawal. I don’t know if said sanctions were ever actually applied. Furthermore, the UK set up an arms deal with Ukraine literally 4 months before, and all the “donations” are in fact bilateral aid agreements - if Ukraine survives, it will be expected to pay back the UK at inflated rates (bilateral aid always favours the giving country, as the receiving country is desperate). Of course, Ukraine probably won’t be able to pay, but that’s a future government’s problem. Meanwhile, Rishi (then chancellor) was able to fiddle the books a little because of it.
That is pretty weak shit to be honest. Cummings was just the sort of big-talking nerd that someone who fancies themselves as shaking things up would be in awe of.
You’re pretty much simultaneously claiming that Cummings was an astute liar but also an incompetent fool. Cumming fooled almost half a nation into voting against their interets, in a vote that Nigel Farage called 2 days prior - “If I lost 48 to 52, I’d be out campaigning the very next day”.
Boris didn’t join the Leave campaign because of Cummings. He joined after his meeting with Lebedev. Much to the surprise of his old school mate David Cameron, who went on record saying as much in interview at the time.
Personally, I think Dominic Cummings is nothing but a weasel looking out for his own interests. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is nothing but a knock off Rowan Atkinson character, performed by fellow Oxford alumni Alexander Boris DePfeffel Johnson. Someone who desperately wanted to be able to charge the same for his private party appearances as “Former Prime Minister Tony Blair”.
What would Cummings have to have lied about or been incompetent about in order for BoJo to have afforded him enough respect to do the things you’re pointing out?