Devin Nunes

Devin Nunes Is Playing A Familiar Game Today

... PM. Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA. When a big story breaks while I'm at lunch, it can be a real pain in the ass. Instead of following it in real time, I have to rush around later trying to piece together what's happened. On the other hand, sometimes this is a blessing, because by the time I get to the story it's clearer what the real issue is. I think today is an example of the latter. For starters, here's a nutshell summary of what happened. Devin Nunes, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, took the stage a few hours ago to declare himself "alarmed." He believes that some of Donald Trump's transition team might have been "incidentally" recorded during surveillance of foreign nationals. He won't say who. Nor will he say who the foreign nationals were, other than "not Russian." And as soon as he was done with his press conference, he trotted off to the White House to brief President Trump. There are several problems here. First, Nunes didn't share any of this with Democrats on the committee. Second, incidental collection is both routine and inevitable in foreign surveillance. ...

He Was Too Busy To Tell Flynn To Talk Sanctions

... follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set. By Aaron Blake By Aaron Blake February 27 Follow @aaronblake. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks to reporters on Feb. 14. (Pete Marovich for The Washington Post). House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) faced some very tough questions from reporters Monday. Nunes was holding a news conference amid reports that the White House had enlisted him — the man in charge of investigating alleged contacts between the Trump administration and Russia — to talk to a reporter about the matter. So Nunes was already under fire for making it look as though he isn't entirely neutral in all of this. But there was one particular answer Nunes gave Monday that strained credulity and made it appear as if he were bending over backward to see the best in the White House. It had to do with former national security adviser  Michael T. Flynn's contact with ...

Pressure Builds On Trump To Back Off Wiretap Accusations

... S. March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein. By Emily Stephenson and Caren Bohan | WASHINGTON. WASHINGTON U. S. lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday they had seen no proof to support the claim by Republican President Donald Trump that his predecessor Barack Obama had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion. Several Republicans last week urged Trump to apologize for the allegations he made in a series of tweets on March 4. The maelstrom also caused tension with key U. S. allies and threatens to distract Republicans from campaign promises on health care and taxes. "I don't know the basis for President Trump's assertion," U. S. Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I do believe he owes us that explanation.". Collins said she supported Trump as president, but she wouldn't side with him if he "misstated what the facts are.". FBI Director James Comey is expected to be asked about Trump's claims when he testifies at a rare public hearing on Monday about alleged Russian ...

Trump Transition Communications Were Swept Up In U.s. Spying On Foreign Targets, Rep. Nunes Says

... spying on foreign targets, Rep. Nunes says. David S. Cloud. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images). U. S. intelligence agencies picked up communications involving members of the Trump transition team late last year and reports of the conversations were circulated within the government, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday. "I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community collected information on U. S. individuals involved in the Trump transition," Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) told reporters. The eavesdropping appears to have been legal and inadvertently picked up Trump associates because they were communicating with individuals under government surveillance, Nunes suggested. The surveillance was apparently unrelated to an ongoing FBI counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump campaign aides coordinated with Russian intelligence agencies that sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential race, Nunes said. "Details about U. S. persons ...

Rep. Devin Nunes Tells California Republicans To Push Five Ballot Initiatives, Though Each Could Face Tall Hurdles

... his speech, said the money could be replaced by changing the state's sales tax. "It’s been a few years since I worked on it, but we looked at doing, basically, a broader type of sales tax," he said. "You would just basically get rid of the income tax and just basically have a consumption type system.". He said such a move would not be regressive. "It’s a very transparent way to do it, 150 countries around the world do it that way, there’s no reason why the state of California couldn’t do it," Nunes said. A state commission studied a similar tax plan in 2009 , but the proposal was summarily rejected by state lawmakers. Nunes told the delegates and their guests that if the ballot measures fail, Republicans should keep trying until they succeed. He later told reporters that he estimated it would cost the state GOP $10 million to $12 million each election cycle that the initiatives appear on the ballot. "I would argue that’s the best $10 or $12 million we could spend by putting the initiatives on the ballot” and therefore putting a Republican agenda ...

This May Be The Worst Defense Of Trump’s Obama-wiretapped-me Claim

... There is a temptation to think that, given the less-formal medium, the things Trump says on Twitter should be taken somewhat less seriously. It's just 140 characters, and it's in real time. But the words of a president carry weight no matter where they are uttered. They can start wars and change the course of history in an instant. And as I've argued before , this suggestion that some of Trump's words should be taken literally and others shouldn't leaves all of us in the impossible position of figuring out which words fall into which category. This approach also has the added benefit to Trump of being able to excuse basically anything he says that is offensive or incorrect. It's a Get Out of Jail Free card with no limits to its usage. I'll even admit here that I agree with them that Trump probably doesn't mean to be taken literally at all times. But if we're to adopt this approach to the Trump ...

Worthy Foes Who Lead House Russia Probe

... the hearing was the warning from Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers that the issue of Russian interference isn't going away. "They'll be back," Comey told the intelligence panel. "And they'll be back in 2020, they may be back in 2018, and one of the lessons they may draw from this is that they were successful, because they introduced chaos and division and discord and sewed doubt about the nature of this amazing country of ours and our democratic process.". All the more work for the committee. "There has not been anyone tougher on Russia than the House Intelligence Committee, from Republicans and the Democrats, including Mr. Schiff," Nunes told reporters last week. "So this is a good thing in terms of us being able to highlight this issue.". Caitlin Huey-Burns is a national political reporter for Real Clear Politics. She can be reached at __link__. Follow her on ...

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes Warns Against 'witch Hunt' Over Trump-russia Ties

... "We haven't obtained any of the evidence yet, so it's premature for us to be saying we've reached any conclusion about the issue of collusion," Schiff said. "The most that we've had are private conversations, the chair and I, with intelligence officials. That's not a substitute for an investigation.". The House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting separate investigations into Russia's reported attempts to influence voters in 2016 in an effort to curtail Hillary Clinton's chances and boost Donald Trump's. A leaked U. S. intelligence report on the attempts did not look at whether the effort succeeded. The House committee has expanded a previous ongoing investigation of Russia cyberhacking to include a look at efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, Nunes told reporters Monday. Though it is still in its early stages — the leaders of the ...