Ever since Trump got into office we have watched lie after lie to the American people. And to me, what is even more despicable than that he has lied to the very voters who put him in office over and over again. If you study what he says and then watch his actions you can see it more and more each day (if you are capable of critical thinking at all). Nunes now is betraying those that voted him in too (along with all the American People) as well in the way he is handling all this.
To say one day that Trump's people were caught in an incidental spying caused by the regular watch we have on enemies of the state from Russia and then to say that Trump's people were not caught is an obvious lie to the American People and likely means he should resign from the Intelligence Committee because he has demonstrated now he is an enemy of the people of the United States by the many lies he is telling now to cover Trump and to try to keep Trump in office.
One of the problems I'm seeing here is Republicans have a vested interest in keeping Trump in office but also have an obligation to impeach Trump (or members of his administration as enemies of the state). This is an obvious conflict of interest for All Republicans and may as a direct result cause the Collapse of our Democracy as a result during the next 4 years time.
Are we now so partisan that we are willing to give up what millions now of Americans have fought and died for ever since the Revolutionary War?
The chairman of the House intelligence committee has backed down from his dramatic assertion …
Nunes Backs Down From Assertion Trump Was Monitored
The chairman of the House intelligence
committee has backed down from his dramatic assertion that Donald Trump
and his aides were "monitored," by U.S. spies — a claim the Republicans
have cited this week in fundraising emails.
Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters Friday he can't be sure whether conversations among Trump or his aides were captured in the surveillance that has become a source of controversy since Nunes made it public in two news conferences this week.
"He said he'll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure," his spokesman, Jack Langer, said earlier.
Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters Friday he can't be sure whether conversations among Trump or his aides were captured in the surveillance that has become a source of controversy since Nunes made it public in two news conferences this week.
"He said he'll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure," his spokesman, Jack Langer, said earlier.
Langer asserted that Nunes did not explicitly say Trump was spied on when he briefed reporters Wednesday that he was "very concerned," that "the intelligence community incidentally collected information about American citizens involved in the Trump transition."
As for Trump's assertion that Obama wiretapped him, Nunes repeated Friday what he has said previously, telling reporters, "That didn't happen."
Related: Trump Says He Feels 'Somewhat Vindicated' By Nunes Disclosure
However, Nunes on Wednesday had left an impression — widely repeated in the news media — that the conversations of Trump and his aides were picked up by American spies.
"I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show the president elect and his team were at least monitored and disseminated out," Nunes told reporters.
On Thursday, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email about Nunes' remarks with the subject line, "Confirmed: Obama Spied on Trump."
Nunes himself said he wasn't making that claim — he said the surveillance was legal and there was no wiretap of Trump Tower. But those sorts of assertions by Republicans raised the question about whether what Nunes did was intended to give Trump cover for his discredited claim that Obama "wiretapped" him.
Current and former officials say that it's possible that Trump or his aides were picked up "incidentally" by surveillance, if a foreign diplomat or other target called them or emailed them. But it is far more likely, they say, that what Nunes was talking about was surveillance of foreigners talking to foreigners, who were speaking about Trump and his aides.
Those conversations were then excerpted in intelligence reports that circulated around the government.
Surveillance of those conversations required warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court if the foreigners are in the United States — as diplomats, for example — or if the communications traverse U.S. cables.
"I think this is overwhelmingly not information from or to an American," former NSA and CIA director Mike Hayden told Chuck Todd Thursday on Meet the Press Daily. "I think this is overwhelmingly information about an American, foreign to foreign, in which they are doing what you would expect them to do."
Related: What Is Incidental Collection?
After any presidential transition, Hayden continued, foreign embassies under surveillance are sending reports back to their capitals analyzing "who's up, who's down."
To the extent that Americans are mentioned in these documents, those names are supposed to be blacked out in any intelligence report that is circulated around the government, unless the identities are needed to understand the intelligence.
That issue appears to be what Nunes is now focusing on. In some of the intelligence reports he reviewed, Nunes said, the names of Trump aides were blacked out, but he could figure them out anyway. In other reports, he said, the names had been "unmasked," and he questioned whether that was appropriate.
Hayden, a Republican, suggested it might have been done to better understand the intelligence.
"You need to put flesh in there," he said.
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