Even Republicans Are Pressuring Congress to Investigate Trump and Russia

Former Independent presidential candidate and former CIA operations officer Evan McMullin rolled out an ad today to pressure Congressional Republicans to name a bipartisan select committee to investigate Donald Trump’s Russia crisis.

The ad that went live Tuesday with a six-figure TV buy ends, “Generations fought for freedom, and presidents of both parties stood against foreign tyrants like Vladimir Putin. Why won’t Donald Trump tell Congress to name a bipartisan select committee to get the truth?”

Watch the ad by Stand Up Republic, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Never Trump Republicans Evan McMullin and his 2016 running mate Mindy Finn:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

“Trump’s Russia crisis. Secret contacts. Conflicting stories. Mounting signs of hidden ties and shady deals. Fear our president is compromised,” the narrator says in an ominous tone.

“The values of liberty, justice and honor shaped America. Generations fought for freedom, and presidents of both parties stood against foreign tyrants like Vladimir Putin. Why won’t Donald Trump tell Congress to name a bipartisan select committee to get the truth?”

So basically the guy who “spent much of his service overseas as a clandestine operations officer running counter-terrorism and traditional intelligence operations” is putting the power of his non-profit to try to force Congressional Republicans to name a select committee to investigate Donald Trump’s Russia problem.

Right now, Trump has people with conflicts in charge of each “investigation” into his Russia scandal.

House Intelligence Chair Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) was on the Trump transition team that is being investigated, and he has said he is “more focused on how reports of those conversations got leaked than he is on the conversations themselves.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee is headed by Richard Burr (R-NC) who was a national security adviser to Trump’s campaign. Burr was also “a vocal Trump campaign backer, once boasting he sicced the FBI on Hillary Clinton.”

This means both Nunes and Burr are heading investigations that could implicate themselves. It’s also obvious, aside from the direct conflict, that they are not objective. Can you imagine Republicans allowing Clinton campaign advisers to be in charge of investigating her? I think not.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was advising Trump’s campaign when he was caught talking to a Russian ambassador twice – a matter he lied about under oath during his confirmation hearings – has agreed to step aside for the DOJ oversight of the Trump Russia scandal, but that means he will be the boss of the person investigating it because Republicans don’t think a special prosecutor is called for. So Jeff Sessions will be overseeing the person investigating a matter that could implicate Jeff Sessions.

This is why “Never Trump” Republicans like McMullin and his running mate Mindy Finn are putting their muscle behind demands for a real investigation.

The division is between those who most value their country and those who most value Trump’s ability to defy the odds to get into the White House and sweep Congressional Republicans into office who were in jeopardy. It’s country V Republican Party right now, and that’s a sad commentary on the current GOP. There are many Republicans who don’t agree with that stance, the problem is that they tend not to be in Congress.

Evan McMullin and Mindy Finn founded Stand Up Republic to “build and organize a grassroots movement in defense of liberty, equality, and truth in America.”

Truth. There’s a value at odds with the Trump administration.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.