After former FBI Director James Comey accused presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of being "extremely careless" with sensitive intelligence last year, congressional Republicans were so concerned they jumped to action—introducing a bill to strip security clearances for "carelessness with classified information.”
The legislation didn't actually go anywhere. Apparently, GOP lawmakers were just putting themselves on record about what was acceptable and unacceptable behavior. But it turns out what they really meant is that carelessness is only a problem when Democrats—and perhaps, Hillary in particular—do it.
But as for Donald Trump fumbling intel from a key ally to an adversarial government, giving pause to all our allies in terms of future information sharing? Meh. It was legal, they say—the president doing it makes it all okay. And why jump to conclusions before the investigations are over (cuz Trump's proven so trustworthy all along)? Bottom line: Let's not get too jumpy over national security. A little slip here, a little slip there, everywhere a slip slip. No biggie.
Jennifer Bendery at Huffington Post tracked down GOP co-sponsors of the original bill.
“The president’s ability to communicate whatever he wants to, without it being a breach of the law, is very clear,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). “An employee has a very different function.”
Asked if he considers it “extremely careless” that Trump leaked classified intelligence to Russian officials,” Scott dryly repeated, “I don’t think the president broke the law.”
“Call Alex in my office,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the bill’s author.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the bill applies to all federal employees except the president. Rounds said he still trusts Trump with classified information, but conceded that Trump’s missteps on this front could be diminishing his political capital.
“It never helps,” he said. “It never helps.”
Here's another great response courtesy of GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas:
Asked if he sees irony in Republicans’ backing of legislation to go after Clinton for carelessness while backing off when it comes to Trump, Roberts replied, “There’s irony in every corner and closet in Washington.”
Translation: Sure, it's absolutely ironic, but everybody does it.
Your Republican lawmakers, folks, hard at work making sure Americans are safe—except for when it jeopardizes their hold on government.