Political Humor: In Defense of Representative Nunes and the Trump Wing of the GOP

“Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!” — President Donald J. Trump.

Republican Representative Devin Nunes, President Trump and the Trump wing of the GOP believe the leadership of our intelligence community is controlled by a left-wing Deep State conspiracy (aimed at undermining Trump), and the lame-stream media is hiding this conspiracy from the American people.

Recall that the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Director of National Intelligence — all concluded with high confidence — the Russians interfered with the 2016 American election, intending to undermine: “public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability…Russian President Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump”.

But Trump supporters like Nunes (who chairs the US House Intelligence Committee) aren’t so easily fooled. They know the real scandal isn’t Russian election interference, because Putin denied interfering — and Trump believes Putin. The real scandal is the left-wing Deep State conspiracy against Trump.

Who better for Trump GOP supporters to trust? America’s own intelligence community that believes in silly things like the rule of law? Or fellow Trump supporter Putin, a real leader (who runs a kleptocratic corrupt ethno-nationalist regime, that violently suppresses dissent and arrests opponents)?

For Nunes, the real scandal also isn’t that senior Trump campaign personnel interacted (over 30 times, at 19 meetings) with senior Russian officials, but somehow mostly couldn’t remember these meetings when required to disclose them on Federal security clearance forms. Real Trump GOP supporters understand how forgettable guys with thick Russian accents can be.

Nor, in Nunes’ view, is the real scandal Trump’s first National Security Advisor, General (Ret.) Michael Flynn, pleading guilty for false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. Nunes doesn’t think it worth investigating why Flynn neglected to mention (on his Federal disclosure forms) items like receiving $45,000 from Russia Today for a speech and dinner with Putin in Moscow. I guess getting this kind of money from Russians isn’t unusual among Nunes’ Putin-loving colleagues.

Nunes also isn’t interested in investigating the serious allegation that Trump disclosed highly classified information to the Russians, possibly endangering important intelligence sources. Maybe Nunes feels that, as Trump campaign supporters, the Russians are entitled to a return on their investment.

And Nunes apparently doesn’t see a need to investigate why Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, on multiple occasions filed inaccurate (unkind people might say ‘perjurious’) disclosure reports — neglecting to mention Kushner’s meetings with foreign officials and various potential financial conflicts of interest. Yet, surprisingly Kushner still has access to our nation’s most classified secrets, despite not having a permanent security clearance.

Nor is Nunes interested in investigating Trump’s opaque business interests, and consistent reports that Russians have been major sources of investment money and purchasers of property from Trump family interests.

And, you guessed it — Nunes and his Trump-worshipping colleagues aren’t interested in investigating reports about Russian interests illegally channeling millions of dollars to support Trump’s 2016 election.

Nor do Nunes and Trump Republicans want to investigate or publicly highlight the massive privacy invasion (of literally hundreds of American citizens) by a hostile foreign power, when the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee computer servers. And certainly Trump patriot Nunes see nothing worth looking into, in the potential privacy violation (of literally millions of Americans), by Russian hacks of various state voter registration systems.

Instead, Nunes spotted the real outrage! The FBI obtained a surveillance warrant for one Trump campaign foreign policy advisor (who had been of interest to the America intelligence community since 2013). To get this warrant, the FBI disclosed in a footnote — rather than the main text — that it may have partially relied on information derived from opposition political research.

It took real “courage and grit” to focus on this obscure technical point, which probably impacts nothing, but is a useful distraction from multiple attacks on our political system by Russian interests. A more normal political leader than Nunes might have investigated the Trump campaign team — to probe why and how people who might be security risks were appointed to positions of trust for Trump’s campaign or presidency, or about any of the above-mentioned incidents. The only “scandal” Nunes can see, however, is — the FBI’s investigating a potential Russian infiltration of the highest levels of our government.

Good to see Nunes spending our tax dollars protecting Putin’s and Russia’s privacy, from those sinister FBI agents.

Nunes wisely refused to allow the Department of Justice to brief his Congressional Committee on its side of the story, before releasing his memo — explaining “we are not going to be briefed by people [the American intelligence community] that are under investigation by this committee”. So, then who is briefing Nunes: Putin? Trump? Fox and Friends? Or little voices in his head when he puts on a tinfoil hat?

Thankfully — Trump Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has a solution — the intelligence community must be more transparent about its sources to help rebuild trust. Brilliant! If, for example, the intelligence community publicly names a spy close to Putin as our information source, then Putin can kill our spy, thereby eliminating a source of material embarrassing to Trump. Problem solved!

Ryan also says it’s time to ‘cleanse’ the FBI and Department of Justice. Still other Trump Republican lawmakers want these left-wing Deep State plotters (who annoyingly suggest investigating Russian interference in our elections) tried for treason.

Strangely, many of these purported left wing Deep State traitors — former FBI Director Comey, Special Counsel Mueller, Assistant Attorney General Boyd, FBI Director Wray, and Assistant Attorney General Rosenstein — are Republicans. But they aren’t loyal Trump Republicans — they place allegiance to the Constitution ahead of loyalty to Trump.

Presumably, these miscreants will have appropriate show trials before replacement by loyal Trump Republicans.

Yes, America — we clearly face a dangerous moment in our history. Vote wisely in 2018.