On Wednesday, senators and representatives finally got that briefing they should have received before Donald Trump decided to launch airstrikes on Iraqi bases, murder an Iranian general, and take the world to the brink of war while getting U.S. forces in Iraq officially labeled terrorists. Or at least, members of Congress finally got a briefing. Except, as CNN reports, Republican Sen. Mike Lee described what had happened as the “worst briefing I've had on a military issue.” And generally reliable Trump pocket troll Rand Paul complained that what had passed for a briefing was "an insult to the Constitution."
That was the Republican response. Much of the anger over the briefing seemed to have come from the briefers’ refusal to answer any question regarding the so-called imminent threat that made it worth risking an assassination of the the top Iranian military leader. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar apparently had the gall to point out one of the massive problems with the inconsistent information Americans had been given so far: If the evidence was that Soleimani had called back to Tehran to say that he wanted to come home and discuss a potential operation, just how imminent could that threat really have been if the operation hadn’t even been approved?
That didn’t get an answer. But then, neither did anything else.
However, there was someone in the room who was happy with how things went. Someone who was satisfied with the answers, because he didn’t really need any information. Someone who was Lindsey Graham. Graham declared himself “disappointed” in his fellow senators for even asking for details. After all, “It was clear to me that this guy was up to no good in the moment.” But that was far from the best Grahameling of the day. In describing Trump’s slurring speech, Graham declared that it will be “remembered long after his second term,” and compared it to Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall speech.” In response, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that Graham "is smoking stuff none of us should get their hands on."
And it wasn’t just Steele who had some words for Graham. After Rand Paul was critical of the briefing, Graham was critical of Paul, saying that he was “overreacting” and that both Lee and Paul were “empowering the enemy.” Which then led to Paul saying that Graham was using a “low, gutter type of response.” Paul went on to say that Lindsey Graham didn’t know the Constitution and was draping himself in fake patriotism. And then Marco Rubio jumped in to attack Paul … or Lee … it’s not really clear.
None of which made the collapse of American democracy any less real. But it did make it funnier.
The Twitter Civil War isn’t over yet. Lee fired back at Rubio to suggest that they must have been in two different hearings, because the one he was in was “terrible” and “an unmitigated disaster." Don’t expect that to be the final shot fired over Fort Something or Other. Load those word muskets, boys.
Meanwhile, from the other side of Article II, NBC News reports that Mike Pence declared that Congress can’t be trusted with genuine information. Appearing on Today, Pence said that the “most compelling” intelligence—what Pence said was really “exquisite intelligence”—wasn’t shared with Congress because it “could compromise sources and methods.”
Which is true. Congress has done things that could compromise intelligence sources. Specifically, Devin Nunes and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee did exactly that, over the objections of both the CIA and the FBI, with Trump’s encouragement.
And … gee golly, it’s a good thing that Republicans haven’t spent, like, the entire last year tearing down the oversight authority of Congress and declaring their allegiance to Trump over the Constitution. Because otherwise they’d look damned silly demanding information now, when they’ve been straight-out saying they didn’t need to see anything because of their faith in Trump.
Grahameling: gerund
Acting in an obsequious and fawning manner that can only be truly achieved by Lindsey Graham.
“After a day of grahameling, he found himself really getting a taste for boot polish.”