Now GOP Congressmen Are Being Yelled At In Their Districts Over Putin-Gate As Well As Trumpcare

Flip-floppin' Darrell says he's changed his mind again on a special prosecutor

Yesterday, Adam Schiff (D-CA) was on ABC's This Week and John McCain (R-AZ) was on CNN’s State of the Union and they both were singing the same tune, namely that Trump was full of shit with his crazy claim that Obama wiretapped him. McCain said that the asshole "has to provide the American people, not just the intelligence community, but the American people, with evidence that his predecessor, former president of the Unites States was guilty of breaking the law... I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the president of the Unites States could clear this up in a minute." Schiff put it slightly differently: "I don't expect we're going to see any evidence of this either... There are one of two possibilities here. Either the president quite deliberately for some reason made up this charge or, perhaps more disturbing, the president really believes this. And here's where I think it's consequential... if six months from now the president should say that Iran is cheating on the nuclear agreement, if he's making that up, it's a real problem. If he's not making it up and it's true, it's an even bigger problem because the question is, would people believe him."

Over the weekend, two right-wing congressmen from the San Diego region-- Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa caught hell at town halls meetings in their districts. According to reporters from the San Diego Union-TribuneA, about a thousand people showed up for each. Hunter ignored the 600 who couldn't fit into the small venue he had hired in Ramona, while Issa had back-to-back sessions in Oceanside. It was the first time either of them faced their constituents since Trump's election. According to the report, "The messages from the audience and those outside mainly came in the form jeers, hollers and protest signs with a clear theme: they want the congressmen to oppose Trump’s agenda. Hunter appeared to have more supporters at his event than Issa did at his, but they were both heavily outnumbered... The two forums were rowdy, confrontational and packed. Health care was perhaps the main focus, but attendees also wanted to talk about other issues including immigration and climate change."

Issa and Hunter were pressed on their positions on Russian interference in last year’s elections. Issa drew applause when he told one crowd that he wants an independent investigation.

“Are we going to investigate Russia to the very nth degree for interfering in our election? Yes,” Issa said. “But we also have to stop Russia from their actions around the world and destabilizing the world.”

Issa also said his “public statements are clearly out of step with many other Republicans.”

“I will continue to press my colleagues publicly and privately to realize that this is an existential threat to democracy if we do not stop it,” he said.

Hunter, in response to a question, said he would not support an independent investigation into Russian interference in last year’s elections, but said he does back various investigations by Congress. The intelligence community, Hunter said, is filled with “seditious Obama folks” who “hate Donald Trump as much as you do” and are trying to undermine the administration.

He said he believes that Trump’s emails and communications were intercepted when Obama was in office, but he later, when questioned by a reporter, said he has no proof.

“I think that Donald Trump did have his phone conversations and emails intercepted,” Hunter said. “And those of you that believe in democracy and free elections, can tell me that a sitting election whose party is running for the presidency, can wire tape and intercept another candidate’s phone. I would think you would be for freedom and liberty, not for an Orwellian government that controls us, which is what we have right now.”

On Twitter earlier this month, President Donald Trump said that the Obama administration had wiretapped his phone. The White House has not provided any sort of explanation or support for the claim. Obama and his administration’s intelligence officials issued strong denials of such activities.

The Orange County Register also covered Issa's town hall and noted that "no answer came without a smattering of jeers," including demonstrators outside the hall shouting "Do your job!" over and over.

Dmitry Demidov, who has lived in America for 21 years and is critical of the Trump administration’s ties to Russia, wore a Russian-styled police hat as he stood outside the building and held a red banner that read “Make Russia Great Again.”

With questions about Putin-Gate swirling around congressional Republicans like Issa and Hunter back in their home districts, the stonewalling and sleazy game being played by House Intelligence Committee chairman--and Trump campaign official-- Devin Nunes (R-CA) is becoming more and more of an embarrassment. And now that Nunes' refusal to cooperate with any semblance of an impartial investigation, the Democrats on his committee are starting to threaten to pull out of his silly whitewash entirely. Saturday the NY Times reported that the Democrats on Nunes' committee aren't going to sit back and be props in an illegitimate proccess meant to add to the Regime's desperate coverup.

Democrats are bracing for fights over subpoenaing witnesses and documents-- including, possibly, Mr. Trump’s tax returns-- since Republicans have balked at an outside, independent inquiry into what intelligence officials say was an unprecedented intrusion into an American election by a foreign power.

“I’m not going to be part of a dog-and-pony show that is not a serious effort to do an investigation because this is really serious,” said Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California. “If it’s not a legitimate and comprehensive and in-depth investigation, why would we be party to it?”

Ms. Speier said the committee’s Democrats-- all nine of whom were interviewed by the New York Times-- would not hesitate, “under certain circumstances,” to pull their support.

Democrats are already wary of moves by the committee’s chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, to undercut the purported Russian connection. Mr. Nunes has belittled news stories about the Russian links of Mr. Trump’s associates and has pledged-- along with Senator Richard M. Burr, the North Carolina Republican who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee-- to examine Mr. Trump’s accusations, made without evidence, that President Barack Obama ordered surveillance of Trump Tower.

...Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the committee’s top Democrat, said it was unclear whether the panel could conduct a credible investigation, ideally resulting in a single, bipartisan report on its findings. Along with Mr. Nunes, Mr. Schiff is among the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leaders who receive classified intelligence briefings.

“If we get to the point at any time where I feel we can’t do that, where there are legitimate lines of investigation that are being walled off, then I will say so,” Mr. Schiff told reporters this week.

Democrats expect the first major test of the investigation-- and Mr. Nunes’s stewardship-- to come on March 20, when the committee holds its first public hearing. An initial list of invited witnesses included James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence under Mr. Obama; and Sally Q. Yates, the former acting attorney general who was fired by the Trump administration after refusing to defend the president’s first travel ban.

Absent from the witness list was Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser, who resigned after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Though Mr. Nunes emphasized it was only an early list, he referred to Mr. Flynn as “a tangent,” portraying him as more of a victim of the intelligence leaks Mr. Nunes is seeking to investigate than a target of the inquiry.

“From everything that I can see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador, he was doing this country a favor, and he should be thanked for it,” Mr. Nunes said.

Mr. Nunes may need to tread cautiously to avoid the perception of crossing the line from impartial moderator to advocate. He has said the issue of whether Trump Tower was under surveillance during the campaign was well within the scope of the inquiry, and has denied that he added it after the president demanded that Congress investigate.

With a tight smile, Mr. Schiff said he welcomed the opportunity to disprove Mr. Trump’s accusation. But some Democrats fumed at the idea that the panel’s work could give credence to it. Should the issue not be put to rest quickly, Ms. Speier said, “it would call into question the entire investigation.”

Several Democrats said they expected their desire to compel certain witnesses to testify to stoke friction among Republicans. But a flash point could come if Democrats press to subpoena Mr. Trump’s tax returns, a move that could scuttle the entire inquiry.

Democrats have favored an outside, independent investigation, but many of them see the panel’s inquiry as the best they can do. And they are keenly aware that by pulling their support, they would sacrifice their roles in an investigation some see as among the most important of their time in public service.

“It’s a big jump to pull out of this investigation, no matter how bad it is,” said Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois. “Because whatever truth you can bleed out of this thing, the better off you are.”