Trump, who has never read the Schiff memo, but had people in his White House and Fox News tell him about it, declared it too political for release.
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Trump tweeted:
The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
Donald Trump doesn’t read intelligence reports and memos. White House chief of staff John Kelly admitted that Trump didn’t read the memo but was briefed on it, and the President gets his information from Fox News. By “too political” Trump means that the Democratic memo debunks the FBI conspiracy theory that the White House and the staff of House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) cooked up.
The only thing political about the Schiff memo that is too political is that it point by point debunks Trump’s memo.
Trump’s paranoia keeps shooting the White House in the foot
The refusal to release the Democratic memo is another example of this White House creating a negative story for itself out of nothing because of the paranoid president’s fear of transparency and facts. If the White House released the Schiff memo, everyone would look at it, and move on. Their refusal to release the memo has created controversy where there should be none.
Republicans are frustrated because Trump is sucking the oxygen out of their plan to run during the midterm election on tax cuts, and unforced errors like this one only serve to bury the Republican message even deeper.
Trump was never going to release the Schiff memo because he needs the Republican memo to stand in order to fire Rod Rosenstein and kill the Russia investigation. The refusal to release the Schiff memo is another brick in Trump’s obstruction of justice wall.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
