If you have the time, please watch The Rachel Maddow Show from Thursday, March 24. It's chock full of important information about all this stuff. In particular, she details some of the shadier aspects of Russia situation. As you may know, the House Intelligence Committee has been holding hearings with FBI Director James Comey. Members of this committee have access to classified material that We the People will probably never see. Several members of Congress have spoken to the press and said that there is a lot of evidence indicating that the Trump campaign was in collusion with Russia during the election.
Jeez...makes a little bungled burglary in a hotel room pale by comparison. The cloud of scandal that we are living under is unbelievable. While we may feel powerless as average Americans, we need to continue to raise our collective voices in dissent.
From Kate Schatz of Solidarity Sundays:
Yesterday the House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep Devin Nunes, who leads the committee charged with investigating purported Russian interference in our government (and was a member of the Trump Transition Team. Ok?!?!) made an out-of-the-blue announcement that a "source" informed his that Trump transition team communications may have been collected as part of US intelligence agencies' routine monitoring of foreign officials. In other words, Trump's team was communicating with people who were of interest to the US intelligence community. Nunes did NOT notify House Intelligence Committee minority leader Adam Schiff of his discovery, or any other members of his committee, but instead immediately informed House Speaker Paul Ryan and the media, and INVITED HIMSELF TO DC to brief President Trump. The easiest read is that he thought he was doing Trump a solid by distracting the public/media, and making it look like Trump WAS being surveilled! Just like he tweeted! But basically it backfired and he pissed everyone off (except Trump I guess who loves people who love him?) Again, Nunes went directly to the PERSON HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE INVESTIGATING. This is so far beyond any kind of precedent. House Intel Comm is prestigious, and a big deal—they have super high level intelligence access and clearance, and lots of House Reps freaked out and today Nunes apologized, like "Whoops, my bad, lapse in judgement." Bro. You're fired.
BUT ALSO the ranking Dem on the House Intel Comm, Adam Schiff from LA, who is emerging as a kind of hero, went on Meet the Press to talk about how wrong Nunes was to do that, and toward the end of the interview he was asked about the circumstantial evidence around Trump/Russia collusion that the committee has seen, and he was like "I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial." WELL. THE PLOT, IT THICKENS.
So...yeah. Devin Nunes later APOLOGIZED to the House Intelligence Committee for going to see Trump, but what good does that do???? He said, "The president didn't call me. I called and went down myself." Seriously??? I know this trick! Act now, apologize later. It's how you get away with doing something that you know you aren't supposed to do. Nunes is a crook who has no business leading such an important committee.
Okay...so today's Call to Action is for all of us. If you happen to be represented by someone on the House Intelligence Committee, it's extra important that you call. The states with representation on the committee are California (CA-22, CA-28, CA-14, CA-15), Texas (TX-11, TX-23, TX-20), New York (NY-02, NY-21), New Jersey (NJ-02), Arkansas (AR-01), South Carolina (SC-04), Florida (FL-17, FL-27), Ohio (OH-10, OH-02), Utah (UT-02), Connecticut (CT-04), Alabama (AL-07), Indiana (IN-07), Illinois (IL-05), and Washington (WA-10).
NUNES MUST GO!
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE 2) If your House Rep is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, call him/her (listed below, w/out contact info cuz, come on, you can do that right?!)
#ACTION "Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP]. I'm calling to demand that your colleague Devin Nunes step down from his position on the House Intelligence Committee. His actions yesterday demonstrate more than a lapse of judgement—he is too partisan, and too dangerous for this highly important position."
House Intelligence Committee Members
GOP
DEMS
- Devin Nunes, California, Chair
- Mike Conaway, Texas
- Peter King, New York
- Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey
- Rick Crawford, Arkansas
- Trey Gowdy, South Carolina
- Tom Rooney, Florida
- Will Hurd, Texas
- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida
- Mike Turner, Ohio
- Brad Wenstrup, Ohio
- Chris Stewart, Utah
- Elise Stefanik, New York
- Adam Schiff, California, Ranking Member
- Jim Himes, Connecticut
- Terri Sewell, Alabama
- André Carson, Indiana
- Jackie Speier, California
- Mike Quigley, Illinois
- Eric Swalwell, California
- Joaquin Castro, Texas
- Denny Heck, Washington
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