On Wednesday, intel committee chair Devin Nunes engaged in such a parade of partisan nuttiness that he became the poster boy for why investigating Donald Trump using existing House and Senate standing committees just won’t work. On Thursday, Nunes explained that the reason he ran off to destroy the possibility of an investigation by informing the people under scrutiny of inside details, is because his first duty isn’t to Congress or the voters, it’s to Donald Trump.
After those two-wrongs, it might seem that Nunes would be interested in doing at least something right, and announcing that there would be a closed-door meeting of the intelligence committee next week during which the NSA and FBI could finally inform the other members of the things Nunes has been hiding from them seemed like a good step. The idea that Paul Manafort would also appear before the committee voluntarily might even justify Nunes hopping in front of the cameras as an attempt to make up for his profound mid-week f*@k-up-a-thon.
There’s just one little thing. In proclaiming all this to the press on Friday morning, Nunes also let drop that he was canceling the next in the scheduled series of public hearings on Russia-related matters. And the thing is …
Once again, Nunes blindsided the members of his own committee, made decisions about the schedule without consulting them, and closed down the hearings that last time offered a series of Trump-rattling revelations without giving anyone a chance to object.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) unleashed a blistering attack on his colleague, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), for cancelling a major public hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Schiff called Nunes’ single-handed action a “serious mistake.”
Schiff then slammed Nunes for doing a “dead-of-night” review of documents related to surveillance of President Donald Trump’s associates — and then running to share their contents with the White House before even notifying his own colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee.
All is not forgiven, Devin. Rather than tone down his Wednesday catastrophe, it appears that Nunes has done little but rub salt in the open wound.
