Congressional Republicans care more about loyalty to Trump than the rule of law.
Until Wednesday, Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, had a good enough relationship with his vice-chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat. But then Nunes broke protocol by sharing intelligence with the White House and then with reporters, showing incidental collection of data from Trump’s transition team and possibly from Trump himself. Just two days earlier, FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers had told the intelligence committee that several Trump associates were under investigation for ties to the Russian government and its hacking during the 2016 presidential election. What’s more, they debunked the president’s claim that Barack Obama had placed him under direct surveillance. Nunes concluded the hearing by saying, accurately, that Comey and Rogers had placed a “gray cloud” of suspicion over the Trump administration.
Rather than wait to see if that cloud would linger or pass, Nunes chose to play Weather Wizard, accusing spy agencies of abusing their surveillance powers by collecting and sharing information on Trump and his transition team. Nunes refuses to say where he obtained his evidence and hadn’t shared it with other members of the intelligence committee. But the White House has embraced his claim as vindication that, in fact, Obama spied on Trump.
The problem for this argument, as the Washington Postnotes, is that this surveillance—which occurred after the election—was routine monitoring of foreign officials and diplomats. “While such surveillance aims to gather intelligence about foreign actors, it can often pick up conversations with their American counterparts,” notes the Post. Nunes, who served on the president’s transition team, has muddied the waters around the White House, but he hasn’t vindicated Trump. What he has done, however, is alienate his colleagues, spur calls for a special investigation, and raise questions of whether he released classified information and revealed information about an FBI investigation to the subjects of the investigation.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementNunes sacrificed his professional integrity to run interference for Donald Trump and his team, who—if recent revelations are true—may have coordinated with Russians government hackers to harm their political opponents. Citing U.S. officials, CNN reported on Wednesday that the investigation has revealed indications that “associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”
At a time where his job is to place the good of the country over the good of his party, Nunes has done the reverse. In that, he’s been joined by many of his Republican colleagues. You saw this on Monday, when other Republicans on the intelligence committee tried to steer the discussion away from the administration and its ties to Russia and toward the leaking of classified information. And you’re seeing it now, as House Republicans rush under actual cover of darkness to pass a hastily written health care bill that, according to official estimates, would end health insurance for 24 million people, to subsidize tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
AdvertisementAfter seven years of attacks on the process that yielded the Affordable Care Act—a process that began before Obama entered office and lasted more than a year—Republicans have switched gears, fighting to pass a massive overhaul of the health insurance system in the span of just a month, with little analysis, debate, or consideration of the consequences. As of Wednesday night, in fact, Republicans were rewriting the bill, with the aim of passing it the next day, ignorant of its contents or what it would do to the tens of millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid or purchase insurance on the private market.
AdvertisementEven if you back the larger goals of House Speaker Paul Ryan and his allies, this effort shows a breathtaking contempt for governance and a blithe indifference to the consequences of major legislation. For instance, one item in the horse trading between congressional leadership and recalcitrant Republicans is the “essential benefits” provision in the Affordable Care Act, which requires coverage for standard forms of care. In the past, without those rules, insurers would sell low-cost plans that offered little or no coverage. Individuals would find themselves with huge medical bills but “insurance” that covered a fraction of the costs.
Advertisement AdvertisementPerhaps there’s a way to build a proposal that allows this flexibility for insurers without disrupting the entire market. But House Republicans aren’t interested in crafting that bill. Instead, they plan to rush through, blindfolded, uninterested in what their law would do to actual people.
Again, in the rush to pass the American Health Care Act we have another instance of Republicans abdicating their larger responsibility for the sake of narrow partisan and ideological goals. And indeed, it’s tied to how they’ve approached the investigation into Trump and Russia or how they’ve approached anything relating to the president. Republicans look past Trump’s behavior and actions—his contempt for truth and transparency—so they can pursue an agenda with equal contempt for process and governance.
Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementWe know what it looks like for politicians to sacrifice partisan loyalty for broader principle, to place country over party. And we’ve built a whole mythology around those times when the stakes were high and our lawmakers worked together to save the system. By contrast, we don’t have a narrative of the reverse, when politicians sacrifice principle for partisan loyalty and let polarization drive their actions. But if we werelooking for that narrative, this past week would make a firm foundation. Over the course of just a few days, we’ve seen lawmakers abandon all pretense to principle or consistency for the sake of partisan gain and to benefit a president who disdains our pluralism and democratic institutions.
Tweet Share Share Comment(责任编辑:产品中心)
-
Klarna CEO reveals plan to reduce workforce by 50% and replace it with AI
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is so bullish on AI that the Swedish buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) pla ...[详细] -
12月2日清“香”来了!清远丝苗米深圳推介会四大亮点抢先看_南方+_南方plus12月1日至3日, “2023全球高端食品及优质农产品深圳)博览会”下称“深圳食博会”) 在深圳会展中心福田)召开,全球 ...[详细]
-
张术云对新家的区位很满意最近,汉源新县城东区的鞭炮声此起彼伏。随着新建房的相继落成,移民群众有的忙着乔迁新居,有的忙着装修新家,准备出租。整齐的房屋,洁白的墙面,一幢幢移民新居拔地而起,在新县城东区, ...[详细]
-
30强名单公布!人气歌手投票通道开启丨2023广东乡村歌手大赛
30强名单公布!人气歌手投票通道开启丨2023广东乡村歌手大赛_南方+_南方plus无数个音乐梦想在夏天启航,将于这个冬日迎来盛大的加冕。今年6月,由南方报业传媒集团、广东省精神文明建设委员会办公室、 ...[详细] -
Travel Back in Time and Uncover Old
Oozing with Old-World charm, Boston’s Beacon Hill is a time-traveler’s dream. Stay in a hotel that o ...[详细] -
...[详细]
-
为增强体质、交流球技,雅安军地干休所10月28日至30日,举办了第二届门球友谊赛。军干所、甘孜州干休所10个门球队82人参加,参赛者中年龄最大为88岁。经过45场紧张角逐,最后军干所联队获得第一名,军 ...[详细]
-
汉源花椒 罗光德 摄晏场高台 罗光德 摄雅安位于川滇藏的交通要塞,是四川盆地与青藏高原的结合过渡地带、汉文化与民族文化结合过渡地带,也是南方丝绸之路的门户和必经之路,有着浓厚的历史文化底蕴,更有着丰富 ...[详细]
-
Tesla reveals Cybertruck has sold more than DeLorean
If you want to know how many Cybertrucks Tesla has sold, just wait for the next recall. Two months a ...[详细] -
日前, 市公安局出入境管理部门采取多项措施,确保在我市就业、就学的外国人人身和财产安全,及时掌握来雅和过境外国人情况,更好地开展对外国人的服务工作。 据了解,在外国人管理服务工作中,为了全面掌控和开 ...[详细]