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"Do you hear the silence?" queried Rep. Elijah Cummings at a Tuesday press conference. "This is the sound of House Republicans conducting no oversight of President Trump. Zero. That is what it sounds like when they abdicate their duty under the Constitution.”
Cummings and Democrats are zeroing in on the fact that GOP House Oversight chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who launched an endless string of fruitless inquiries into Hillary Clinton, has completely refused to question anything about the endless flow of ethics and security breaches pouring out of Trump’s White House.
Cummings laid out an airtight case for exactly why that oversight is a glaring abdication of responsibility by Republicans and should have begun weeks, if not months, ago.
"We need some answers to a lot of questions. But the obvious questions are, What did the president know, and when did he know it? Was the president aware of Flynn's efforts. Did he support them? Last night we learn the Justice Department warned the White House counsel three weeks ago that Flynn secretly talked with the Russians about sanctions and may have lied about it to the vice president. The department warned that the national security advisor was at risk of being blackmailed by the Russian government. That was three weeks ago. Three long weeks ago. 21 days ago.
So why did the president say on Friday he did not know anything about Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador? Did the White House counsel really never tell the president? Because if that's true, if that is true, I cannot say the white house counsel could stay in his position. That would be a major national security breach not to inform the president at such a serious charge. Another question, why did Flynn continue to sit in on the most sensitive classified meetings until just two days ago? Ladies and gentlemen, something is wrong with that picture. [...]
Who at the White House decided to do nothing for three weeks as Flynn sat in on meeting after meeting after meeting. Did the president decide to wait? Did counsel decide to wait? Something is wrong here.”
Watch it below the fold.