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You Can’t See Russia From The House, But The Senate’s Ready To Look At Trump’s Ties
“It’s sad that the deliberative body is moving with urgency, and that the urgent body is moving deliberatively,” one House Dem said.
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WASHINGTON
― House Republicans really don’t want to investigate possible ties
between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his administration and
Russian officials.
In a House Judiciary meeting where
members voted on the committee’s plans for the year, Democrats offered
an amendment that would have made oversight of any ongoing investigation
into Trump’s alleged connections to the Russian government a priority.
Every
single Republican voted against the measure. Democrats deployed the
amendment as a symbolic vote, knowing full well Republicans wouldn’t
support it.
Here’s
the text of the amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas):
“The subcommittee will prioritize oversight of any ongoing criminal or
counterintelligence investigation into any connection between Donald J.
Trump as presidential candidate and as President of the United States or
any of his associates or employees and the Russian government.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) drew attention to the vote in a tweet
on Wednesday. In an interview with The Huffington Post later in the
day, he said it was “stirring” how “little of a priority” Republicans
considered oversight of possible links between the president and Russia.
“It was a good day for Russia, and bad day for the U.S.,” Swalwell said.
Pressed on it being a symbolic vote expected to fail, Swalwell pushed back. “A committee
that has oversight of many of the issues involving Russia just voted
three different times to look the other way,” he said.
Does he take any consolation in the fact that Senate Republicans want to investigate and are plowing past their House colleagues?
“It’s sad that the deliberative body is moving with urgency, and that the urgent body is moving deliberatively,” he said.
The move by Democrats comes days after Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid revelations that he discussed sanctions against Russia with Russia’s U.S. ambassador. Democrats immediately called for an investigation. House Republicans said not so fast.
Even
as the story has become an all-consuming controversy, House Republicans
in particular have been steadfast in their reluctance to pursue any
investigation of the Flynn scandal.
Leading
the “move on” chorale from the lower chamber has been Rep. Jason
Chaffetz (R-Utah), who chairs the House Oversight Committee. Yesterday,
Chaffetz responded to the growing demand that Congress scrutinize
Flynn’s communications with Russian officials by saying that there was
no need to conduct any further probe into the matter, telling reporters
that “it’s taking care of itself.”
On Wednesday, Chaffetz and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) requested information from the Justice Department
about the leaks that revealed Flynn’s communications with the Russian
official. House Republicans have shown more concern about the
intelligence leaks themselves than Flynn’s actions and whether he was
directed by higher-ups.
As Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told HuffPost: “We appear to know the facts, I’m not obsessed about this.”
Meanwhile,
Chaffetz’s counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin
Nunes (R-Calif.), has taken up Flynn’s cause as well. Prior to his
resignation, Nunes had defended Flynn in an appearance on Fox News,
referring to him as “the best intelligence officer of his generation”
and complaining that Flynn was “being maliciously attacked by the
press.”
Nunes’ tone hasn’t changed as the story has unfolded. As CNN’s Manu Raju reported,
Nunes’ first response after Flynn tendered his resignation was to
suggest that the intelligence committee had no jurisdiction to do any
further probing, citing “executive privilege” ― thus asserting that
Flynn’s conversations with Trump were protected communications. Since
then, Nunes has made it clear he’d rather investigate the leaks that led to Flynn’s downfall.
Elsewhere,
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) argued that Flynn’s only fault was the
fact that he was new on the job. “In this case, a very loyal,
hardworking patriot did not know exactly what the parameters of his
authority were because he was brand new,” he said. Everything else, Rohrbacher contended, was a “media creation.”
In a contentious interview on CNN,
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) repeatedly insisted that it was time to
“move on.” “Gen. Flynn did what he thought was in the best interest of
the country,” he contended. “I certainly respect that and I think it’s
just time to move on.”
CNN’s
Chris Cuomo argued otherwise, insisting that there was “zero chance”
that the media would let the story go and asking Collins if he’d be
willing to “move on” as easily if it had been a similar scandal in a
Hillary Clinton White House. “It’s Valentine’s Day,” Cuomo quipped, “and
for the love of truth you cannot say you just want to move on.”
Collins
was unmoved. “Guess what?” he asked. “He’s resigned. Now what? We have a
lot of issues to deal with. That’s how I live my life. I don’t dwell in
the past.”
This seems to be the consensus in the House. “Gen. Flynn has resigned. Case done,” said Rep. Rob Whitman (R-Va.).
For
his part, House Speaker Paul Ryan has told reporters, “I’m not going to
prejudge any of the circumstances surrounding this until we have all of
the information,” perhaps momentarily forgetting that Congress is
empowered to search out said information.
And as news broke roughly 24 hours later that members of Trump’s presidential campaign were in “constant contact” with Russian intelligence officials during the election, House Republicans remained silent.
But
they can delay for only so long. Republicans in the upper chamber have
questions surrounding what Flynn did, what Trump’s campaign aides did,
and how far up the White House chain of command knowledge of these
activities extended.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
wants to get answers, and fast, about contact between top members of
Trump’s campaign and Russian officials before the steady trickle of
revelations cripples larger legislative efforts.
Republican lawmakers have
their eye on passing tax reform, as well as settling on a plan to repeal
and replace Obamacare. When asked about what legislative priorities
were suffering in the wake of the unfolding scandal, Corker quipped,
“You name it,” making it clear that Republicans wouldn’t be able to
train their focus on anything until they get to the bottom of what Flynn
told Russia’s U.S. ambassador about sanctions.
Corker, who chairs the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the
latest development “influenced” his thinking on how Republicans need to
proceed with an investigation ― hinting at a broad effort to seek
answers in multiple committees.
“This is something that not
only we need to understand, and we need to get to the bottom of, but I
know the American people need to also,” Corker said. “And so the intel
hearings typically are behind closed doors. They’ve committed to making
it public as much as they can, but I think with this continuing ― every
day you guys are asking us questions ― it’s obviously disruptive to
governing. We need to figure out a better way to handle this.”
Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) issued a joint request to the Justice Department and FBI for a briefing on Flynn’s resignation.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
expressed similar frustrations on Wednesday with the chaos the White
House’s “mixed messages” and “contradictory statements” have caused.
“On literally every major issue there is, there’s been contradictory statements,” he said.
Pressed for his thoughts on
the reports Trump’s campaign team communicated regularly with Russian
officials, McCain couldn’t say with “confidence” that such contact
didn’t extend all the way up to the president.
“All of it is concerning,” he said, “all of it is very concerning, all of it is very concerning.”
Matt Fuller contributed reporting.
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