The Republican In Charge Of Investigating Trump’s Russian Scandal Just Punted
Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) just proved he is unfit to continue in his position as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee after the announcement made today.
Nunes stated that there is no evidence of contact between President Donald Trump’s election campaign and the Russian Government, despite the fact that the intelligence community has presented evidence of the contrary to Congress.
Nunes said this in his statement today:
This is like McCarthyism revisited. We’re going on a with hunt against innocent Americans? At this point, there’s nothing there. Once we behin to look at all the evidence, and if we find any American that had any contact with Russian agents or anybody affiliated with the Russian government, then we’ll be glad to, at that point, you know, subpoena those people before the House and let the legislative branch do its oversight and then we would recommend it over to, you know, the appropriate people. But at this point…we can’t go on a with hunt against the American people, any American people who have not had any contact, just because they appeared in a new story.
The cheek displayed in this statement is infuriating. McCarthyism went after ordinary Americans for grossly exaggerated suspicions of communist inclinations.
This investigation is going after some of the most corrupt individuals and the worst president this country has ever seen. To equate the two is an insult to the victims of the former.
Nunes’ statement comes after it was reported on Friday that he was spreading misinformation about the FBI and other agencies’ investigations into Russia’s connections with Team Trump. Nunes was among various congressmen and senators who spoke to reporters and news outlets about the investigations, asking them to downplay the news. They called Team Trump’s contacts with the Russian government “infrequent and inconsequential.”
This is in direct contradiction of statements made by both the Russian Ambassador to the US and the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, both of whom spoke of conversations had with Trump’s election team in the months leading up to November 8th.
Nunes is on the committee which is investigating Trump’s ties to Russia and Russia’s hacking of the 2016 campaign. The fact that he not only went out of his way to speak to reporters about an ongoing investigation and has now come out and said there is nothing for Trump to answer for is an unbelievably brazen display of corruption on his part. This man does not deserve to hold office and should be prosecuted for obstructing justice.
Nunes’ comments are also in stark contrast to those made by Darrell Issa (R-CA) who over the weekend claimed in an interview with Bill Maher that a special prosecutor was needed to oversee the investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
Clearly, it depends on which Republican you ask as to whether or not Trump is worth investigating. In that case, it’s time to have an independent investigation into what really occurred. There is are clearly questions that need to be answered here.
Not only do American intelligence officials, the best in the world, have their doubts about Trump but based on the efforts of Trump’s own administration to bury this story, it can only be surmised that there was illegal communication about future policy between the Russian government and Trump’s staff.
The Republicans are intent on playing politics with this investigation and the American people deserve answers now.
