GOP House Intelligence chair Devin Nunes pretty much summed up the standard Republican line on launching an independent investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia during an election that was heavily tainted by Russian interference.
“There is not going to be one; I can tell you there is absolutely not going to be one. And I am not going to be lectured by people who are speaking out of both sides of their mouths."
While investigations continue behind closed doors in the House and Senate intelligence committees, launching an independent commission would be much more public and impossible for Republicans to contain. But while the GOP continues its “nothing to see here” routine, everyone who isn't a Congressional Republican is convinced this is likely the biggest scandal they've seen since Watergate. Take it from a seasoned reporter, an independent senator, and a retired military officer.
Veteran journalist Dan Rather, who has a little experience in this arena, called the Trump/Russia story possibly "the measure by which all future scandals are judged." In other words, if we think Watergate was big, we ain't seen nothing yet, he wrote on Facebook.
Watergate is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime, until maybe now. It was the closest we came to a debilitating Constitutional crisis, until maybe now. On a 10 scale of armageddon for our form of government, I would put Watergate at a 9. This Russia scandal is currently somewhere around a 5 or 6, in my opinion, but it is cascading in intensity seemingly by the hour. And we may look back and see, in the end, that it is at least as big as Watergate. It may become the measure by which all future scandals are judged. It has all the necessary ingredients, and that is chilling.
Independent Sen. Angus King, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee that's currently investigating Russia's 2016 meddling, told NPR the inquiry was the “most important” work of his life.
"This is something that's never happened in American history. This is very very gravely serious stuff... This is probably the most important work I've ever done in my life."
King is likely getting a sense of where things are headed here. He said the Senate committee has already been in touch with the federal agencies involved in the Russia inquiry and identified the staff and documents on which to focus.
Then there's this assessment from retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, a former aide to Gen. David Petraeus.
"It's astonishing for a campaign to have contacts with senior intelligence officials of another nation—a strategic adversary of the US. And then for the incoming national security advisor to discuss sanctions that are being imposed on that country by the outgoing administration—ya know, is just breathtaking."
Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager Robby Mook called the similarities between Watergate and Kremlingate "eerie," after running through a quick timeline of events.
“The DNC was broken into by Russian intelligence. The materials that they stole from the DNC were handed over to Wikileaks for the purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Donald Trump. The Intelligence community has confirmed that. Now what we're learning is that at the time this was taking place, officials on the Trump campaign were speaking with Russian officials and that was picked up by our intelligence community because they regularly monitor communications by intelligence officials in Russia -- everyone should be incredibly alarmed by this situation.”
Eerie indeed—but apparently not enough of an astonishing once in a lifetime bar-setting scandal to warrant an independent investigation. Instead, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants you to know that Democrats still haven't confirmed Trump’s entire Cabinet, which by the way, just might have been nominated by a pr*sident who collaborated with a foreign power to win the election. But forget about that last part—it’s Democrats who really need to do their jobs, says McConnell.