California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued a statement regarding the first day of hearings by Rep. Devin Nunes’ House Intelligence Committee. Waters found,
“The House Intel Republicans’ exclusive focus…on the leaks and not on the Russian cyberattacks…more in line with President Trump’s incendiary tweets than the actual intelligence the members received from the public servants charged with ensuring our national security.”
Read Waters’ full statement below:
Read my full statement on today's House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian active measures during the 2016 election. pic.twitter.com/V4cpvFmkS3
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— Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) March 21, 2017
Waters echoed previous calls for a “bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Russian interference in our election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.”
This is certainly what is needed. Neither the House nor the Senate Intelligence Committees are eager to pursue connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, preferring to focus instead on Trump’s complaints about leaks.
Obviously, the leaks themselves are far less important than what has been leaked, which is that was collusion between the Trump team and Russia as part of an effort to get Donald Trump elected as president of the United States.
Only an independent commission will pursue the threat posed to U.S. national security by Russian hacking and possible collusion with Trump officials.
Waters is correct to condemn the Republican focus in the hearings. There is plenty of evidence already, as Comey’s testimony verifies. Republicans simply refuse to consider it.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
