House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, proved Sen. John McCain’s point today that there needs to be an independent investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russian government officials. From the New York Times—
“Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, met on the White House grounds with a source who showed him secret American intelligence reports a day before he revealed that President Trump or his closest associates may have been “incidentally” swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.”
In his explanation of why he had to take this meeting on the White House grounds, Nunes’ spokesman said this to The Hill—
“A spokesperson for Nunes told The Hill in a statement that the congressman “met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source.””
Nunes’ spokesman also said that no one in the White House knew he was there, which proves he did not act inappropriately. Rep. Nunes and his office must mean he did not be taking into account that he did not inform his committee, co-chair and ranking member, or the Speaker of the House before taking this meeting. Also, they must not be allowing for the fact that his account of the “facts” keeps changing from definitive proof of incidental collection to maybe, possibly, some collection, of some people, that could have been on the Trump campaign.
This has gone from comical, to sad, to borderline criminal. If Speaker Ryan does not remove Nunes from his position as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, not only will the committee’s investigation be worthless, Ryan will look feckless and a sycophant to the administration. If the GOP wants to salvage any chance of saving seats in 2018, they need to stop the incompetence and fight the constant urge to appease a President who does not understand, nor cares about how the government works. This is, of course, not going to happen, so I look forward to a Democratically controlled Congress in ten months!
This story gets crazier by the day.
I am always apprehensive about putting something up on current events since this White House has a daily, sometimes hourly, crisis that changes the narrative. I love watching ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’, but if you do not watch it at its scheduled time, most of the jokes and information are irrelevant by the next morning. How is this type of “governing” sustainable over the next four years?
I heard John Dean speak the other day and he thought that if the Rs held Congress under Nixon there probably would not have been an impeachment.
Certainly is crazy, but it also serve the purpose of discrediting the Republicans as well as Trump. At this point any attempts to hush it up will fail and probably blow back on those that attempt it, Nunes comes to mind. And yes, above all else I find many parallels to the Nixon era which I remember very well. Time to start answering the phone with a cheery “Impeach The President!”. Sorry, getting nostalgic.
The Dems need to focus on Medicare-For-All instead of this.
Supposedly, he talked to Ryan before he went to the president. Ryan can’t get rid of him without exposing himself
This story keeps shifting. Now he, reportedly, drive for a short distance, then took an Uber the rest of the way. Why would anyone who was not trying to cover something up do something so TV-spy-drama dumb?