Is the White House trying to hide something?

[Sparko]

He may be wrong, and I may have been right not to think too much about Trump's supposed collusion with Russian attempts to harm Clinton, but Cheney is not a Democrat. And the White House (and Nunes) do seem to be really bad at talking to the press in a straightforward way.

Just because Cheney, a republican believes the Russian angle doesn't mean it is real or that the democrats are not using it to create a false controversy by claiming Trump was involved in a desperate grab to retain relevance and power.

[robrecht]

Just because Cheney, a republican believes the Russian angle doesn't mean it is real or that the democrats are not using it to create a false controversy by claiming Trump was involved in a desperate grab to retain relevance and power.

See my response to you above.

[Sparko]

I am not trying to counter that the Democrats will play politics with this. And I have no idea if the White House might be trying to hide something here or what that might be, but they are not very good at this, are they?

At this point the whole thing sounds like a soap opera. We can't trust the media to tell us what is going on and nobody trusts the politicians to tell the truth.

[robrecht]

At this point the whole thing sounds like a soap opera. We can't trust the media to tell us what is going on and nobody trusts the politicians to tell the truth.

The entire media is not lying and some politicians tell some truth, some more than others. Republicans should not completely ignore it when other Republicans like John McCain or Lindsay Graham, for example, express genuine concern about the way some of their own political allies are acting. Surely, you can see why Devin Nunes is not handling his committee's investigation well, right?

[Sparko]

The entire media is not lying and some politicians tell some truth, some more than others. Republicans should not completely ignore it when other Republicans like John McCain or Lindsay Graham, for example, express genuine concern about the way some of their own political allies are acting. Surely, you can see why Devin Nunes is not handling his committee's investigation well, right?

I haven't been following what Nunes has been doing. But as far as McCain goes, his animosity with Trump (it goes both ways) is enough for me to take what he says with a grain of salt. He has always been a very "left" sided republican. I don't know much about Graham.

Sorting through the lies and the truth is getting pretty difficult these days. Everyone wants to spin things their way. I do think the democrats just need to back off and let Trump run the country without interference at every turn. He won. Deal with it.

[robrecht]

I haven't been following what Nunes has been doing. But as far as McCain goes, his animosity with Trump (it goes both ways) is enough for me to take what he says with a grain of salt. He has always been a very "left" sided republican. I don't know much about Graham.

Sorting through the lies and the truth is getting pretty difficult these days. Everyone wants to spin things their way. I do think the democrats just need to back off and let Trump run the country without interference at every turn. He won. Deal with it.

That's not the way our system of government works. Trump has to deal with Congress (which still has some Democrats in it) and the courts. The president doesn't just run the country without judicial review or congressional oversight. Nunes is making Trump look worse than McCain ever could, and Nunes was part of the transition. As a Democrat, I could be very honest about the weaknesses of Obama or Clinton (both of them), there's no reason why Republicans cannot also do so about Trump, Pence, Nunes, Spicer, etc.

[Sparko]

That's not the way our system of government works. Trump has to deal with Congress (which still has some Democrats in it) and the courts. The president doesn't just run the country without judicial review or congressional oversight. Nunes is making Trump look worse than McCain ever could, and Nunes was part of the transition. As a Democrat, I could be very honest about the weaknesses of Obama or Clinton (both of them), there's no reason why Republicans cannot also do so about Trump, Pence, Nunes, Spicer, etc.

I am not talking about the regular running of the government. I am talking about the fake scandals, trying to keep Trump for even getting his cabinet in place, blocking his executive orders with nonsense ruling by judges that have no say in the matter whatsoever, and all of the games going on.

[robrecht]

I am not talking about the regular running of the government. I am talking about the fake scandals, trying to keep Trump for even getting his cabinet in place, blocking his executive orders with nonsense ruling by judges that have no say in the matter whatsoever, and all of the games going on.

You bring up a very good case in point. One would do better to find good sources in the media rather than believe everything Donald Trump tweets. First of all, it is the proper role of the Senate to review and approve nominees to the Cabinet. On March 3rd, Trump tweeted: "It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet." Even Fox admitted this was the fault of the White House, 'though they tried to soften the blow by inexplicably saying only that 'part of the blame may lie with the administration'. Just the day before, Senator Marco Rubio had correctly noted that the Senate had approved all of the eligible Cabinet nominees and Republican Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee had been complaining about the lack of the necessary paperwork from the administration. There was still one Cabinet position that Trump had not named yet, while two other hearings had not yet been scheduled--the Republicans are responsible for scheduling these hearings. So who was playing Twitter games with the truth here? Trump.

[Leonhard]

[Carrikature]

Cheney is wrong. Our voting process consists of individual citizens going to their designated polling location and casting a ballot for their electoral college representative to vote for President. There is no evidence that a single ballot was changed by Russians. Therefore, the propaganda campaign that supposedly originated from Russia didn't "interfere" with anything.

You're smarter than this. Advertising, which is what propaganda really is, regularly affects decision-making. Whether or not ballots were changed is a red herring.

[Starlight]

Nunes is making Trump look worse than McCain ever could, and Nunes was part of the transition.

The sheer incompetence of Nunes' attempts at cover-up are hilarious. He's managed to make himself the center of attention by publicly sabotaging the investigation he's supposedly leading.

[Darth Executor]

Spicer clarified that the White House did not respond to Yates' lawyer's letter and therefore had no objection to her testifying. Still wondering why Nunes seems to have suspended the committee's investigation.

More specifically, the WaPo lied (again) and you got suckered into talking about another non-story.

[robrecht]

More specifically, the WaPo lied (again) and you got suckered into talking about another non-story.

That is partly my fault in speaking of 'the White House' when the WaPo story spoke more generally of the 'the administration', which would include the DOJ. The WaPo correctly story quoted Schiff regarding our lack of knowledge of whether or not the White House had any influence on Nunes' cancelling the hearing: "... Whether the White House’s desire to avoid a public claim of executive privilege to keep her from providing the full truth on what happened contributed to the decision to cancel today’s hearing, we do not know." According to the WaPo story, the DOJ lawyer merely laid the groundwork for the White House to claim executive privilege: "Scott Schools, a senior Justice Department lawyer, replied in a letter to O’Neil, saying the Yates conversations with the White House 'are likely covered by the presidential communications privilege and possibly the deliberative process privilege. ..." Thus I agree with you that the WaPo story exaggerated what is known when it said that the administration 'sought to block Sally Yates from testifying to Congress'. The White House never responded to Yates' letter because the hearing had already been cancelled.

[robrecht]

The sheer incompetence of Nunes' attempts at cover-up are hilarious. He's managed to make himself the center of attention by publicly sabotaging the investigation he's supposedly leading.

I know of three congressional Republicans who have no confidence in his ability to conduct a credible investigation, but I am disappointed that there are only three at this point. Being a surrogate of the campaign and then a member of the transition, it seems obvious that he should have recused himself by now, but ethics are not a strong point of American politicians.

[Starlight]

ethics are not a strong point of American politicians.

I think they see conflicts of interest as a good thing. Trump apparently does, with his jobs-for-the-family, money-for-my-businesses approach.