Last updated on May 25th, 2018 at 05:57 am
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders came up with the most bogus excuse you’ll ever hear for no Democrats being invited to the meeting. She said that Democrats weren’t invited to attend the meeting with DOJ officials because they didn’t request the information.
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After Sanders told the media that no Democrats would be invited to the meeting, only Republican Reps. Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes, reporters asked the Press Secretary why/
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She answered, “I hardly call brokering a deal to help coordinate a meeting. And help congress receive information that they have requested. To my knowledge, the Democrats have not requested that information, so I would refer you back to them on why they would consider themselves randomly invited to see something they have never asked to.”
The implications of what the White House is up to was quickly pointed out by journalists on Twitter:
By not inviting Democrats to this FBI briefing, the White House appears to be, quite literally, politicizing intelligence.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 22, 2018
For all functional purposes Nunes IS WH staff. But he was also a Trump Transition official right when much of the underlying activity was happening, and said he was in touch with Flynn every day. Him getting private access to classified info on the investigation is absurd. https://t.co/FJeQEsepxg
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) May 22, 2018
This was Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s reply to Democrats being frozen out of briefing:
SCHUMER on WH mtg RE: confidential FBI source: “I think it’s very wrong and I think it shouldn’t be done. It’s unprecedented, it’s outrageous and it has overtones of things that would be done in a banana republic where the dictator just pushes what he wants done.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 22, 2018
Senate Republicans have been tougher on the Russia investigation, so they are also not invited
The meeting is really about warping and twisting US intelligence to give Trump assistance for his legal defense. This is not a serious FBI briefing. It is a Republican propaganda effort. It is telling that Senate Republicans who are trying to conduct an investigation into the Russia scandal were also not invited. The Thursday White House meeting was designed to give Trump a new cover story. It is only for those who are engaging in the Trump/Russia cover-up.
Anyone who is interested in the facts or what really happened is not invited.
The meeting is a sham, and leaks that come out of it will be twisted propaganda that is designed to only help Donald Trump.
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
