president – Smoking-Jackets

Devin Nunes doesn’t get secrecy

Story highlights

Paul Callan: Democrats and others want intelligence committee chair to resign for odd late-night visit to White House
Callan: Nunes should do so; US has right to expect more circumspect behavior from head of committee in charge of America’s secrets

In the full technicolor version of this fantasy, the cuffs would next be fastened on Trump, ending the progressives’ enduring Trumpian nightmare.

It’s clear that a lot more information is required before anyone can fairly judge the propriety and legality of Nunes’ actions. What we do know is that shortly after this visit to view classified information, Nunes perhaps surprised even the President by requesting a meeting. He failed to tell the House Intelligence Committee about this meeting with the President, an action for which he recently apologized.

Nunes tried to explain all of this to Wolf Blitzer earlier today, fielding specific questions about the White House visit. The chairman hedged on some questions and flatly declined to answer other inquiries, invoking the need to protect “sources and methods” and still “classified” information.

As chairman of the intelligence committee, enjoying among the highest of security clearances, the chairman would clearly be committing a crime if he publicly disclosed classified information. Answers that appear to be specious and deceptive may fit that description or in fact just be an intelligence chairman trying to protect classified information as well as “sources and methods.” This can only be legally evaluated when more is known about the contents of the mysterious documents that are now causing such a controversy on Capitol Hill.

Many Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee as well as others in Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are calling for Nunes’ resignation, or recusal from any further role in the House committee’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russians and the issues relating to the President’s Twitter-announced claim that President Obama ordered wiretaps on Trump Tower.

Nunes should seriously consider stepping aside, as his own actions have now become the center of an ever-widening and distracting controversy.

Though at this point there is no evidence that the chairman acted illegally, the country has the right to expect far more circumspect behavior from the chairman of the House committee in charge of America’s secrets. It’s a little late for him to be learning that secrecy is paramount in the business of investigating the intelligence community.

The missteps of Nunes and the inappropriate tweets of the President appear to be drawing both men into the dark fantasies of Trump opponents across the country. One lesson they both should have learned by now is that the denizens of America’s spy apparatus are nicknamed “spooks” for good reason.

April Ryan asked the most important question of Trump presidency

He called on the American Urban Radio Networks correspondent first, and the two exchanged forced pleasantries. Moving on, folks, was the clear message. Nothing to see here. We are professionals and combat happens.

But, lost amid that Tuesday exchange was the actual substance of Ryan’s question. It was an important one, which goes to the heart of where President Donald Trump finds himself — the Gallup daily tracking poll has Trump at 35%, a new low.

Pressing her way through interruptions, Ryan suggested that the Russia investigations and the wiretapping claims, contributed to a storm cloud around Trump that could hamper his administration.

Spicer’s response was among his most combative, full of push-back. He referenced Russian salad dressing, and offered the SNL-ready line, “please stop shaking your head.” Spicer was evasive, short-tempered and dismissive. His answer only underscored Ryan’s assessment of this administration’s image problem.

In politics, image is everything. And probably even more so for this President, who is clearly enamored of the performative part of the presidency, if not the policy demands.

Beyond the stagecraft — the meetings and photo-ops in the Oval office, the signing ceremonies for executive orders and the announcements about commissions — Trump’s image will ultimately rest on results, competence and how Americans feel about him.

So far, by those metrics, Trump is struggling. Polls show voters increasingly doubting his honesty, leadership skills and whether he cares about average Americans. A rebranding, or in Ryan’s words, a revamp, is in order.

The question, still, as Ryan asked, is how?

‘Wire tapping’ and 11 other words and phrases Trump has tweeted in quotes

“The President used the word ‘wiretaps’ in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities,” Spicer said on Monday. Evidence of an Obama wiretap — using the narrow definition of a wiretap — hasn’t been found by the House or Senate intelligence committees.

It turns out that Trump uses quotes a lot in his tweets. Here are some other words and phrases that the President may have been using broadly on Twitter since his inauguration. And, of course, in every instance, it’s entirely possible that he was quoting someone else without it being immediately clear.

The word “play” actually has many different meanings. In this case, the President probably wasn’t using it to refer to “amorous flirtation.”

“Ran over”

Trump has advocated for friendlier relations with Russia, although he has said he would stand up to world leaders better than his predecessor.

“Witch hunt”

The President isn’t really into threading his tweets, so this came at the end of a four-part tweet about the integrity of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who admitted to meeting the Russian ambassador last year, but is also not a witch. Questioning by Democrats and others about those meetings, according to this tweet, was a figurative witch hunt, as opposed to the literal witch hunts of the colonial era.

“Rigged”

Even though he’s a Republican, Trump kept up on the election of the Democratic National Committee chairman. Tom Perez beat out Bernie Sanders-backed Rep. Keith Ellison, and the President pulled out one of his favorite words to express how he felt about it. He clearly meant that the election was stacked against Ellison, but according to the dictionary, could also have meant “to fit out with rigging.”

“Leakers”

Trump, like almost anyone in a position of power, is not a fan of leaked information. In this tweet, he quoted the colloquial term for someone who gives out (information) surreptitiously.

“Sources”

It is no secret that the President doesn’t have the best relationship with the news media. In this tweet, he seems to be dismissing the people — known as “sources” — who provide information to journalists for stories. See also: “leakers.”

“Intelligence”

Just to recap: Trump doesn’t like leaked information. He tweeted this during a period when intelligence leaks stirred up questions about officials from his campaign and their interactions with the Russians. What a sick burn, though — calling the intelligence of the intelligence community into question by putting the word “intelligence” in quotes. A lot of nuance in those quote marks.

“Evil”

In this case, it’s totally understandable for Trump to use quotes around the word “evil.” Evil can mean a lot of different things to different people. And, generally speaking, getting “evil” out of the country is probably something anyone could get on board with.

“Bad” and “dudes”

Like “evil,” “bad” is another word that means different things to everyone. And in talking about his initial travel ban, Trump left the definition wide open. As far as “dudes” goes, maybe Trump just doesn’t use the word frequently. Honestly, no one should really be using the word “dudes” seriously unless they are living in California or the year 1989.

“Carnage”

For all we know, the President was quoting his own Inauguration speech on this tweet. The most commonly used definition of carnage is “great and usually bloody slaughter or injury.” More than 700 people were murdered in Chicago last year, so whatever definition of carnage you go with, and however you feel about “(sending) in the Feds,” the President has at least identified a huge problem that needs fixing.

It’s time for Devin Nunes to step down

Story highlights

Paul Callan: Democrats and others want intelligence committee chair to resign for odd late-night visit to White House
Callan: Nunes should do so; US has right to expect more circumspect behavior from head of committee in charge of America’s secrets