Nunes Audible Flops, House GOP Credibility Sacked

On the heels of the Super Bowl, it seems like a little Monday morning quarterbacking on the release of Nunes' bogus memo is in order.

Speaker Ryan and House Republicans should have shut down their reckless obstruction campaign back when Chairman Nunes was making his midnight runs to the White House.  Republicans need to decide whether it's worth wagering our national security and the integrity of our law enforcement to protect a President who clearly has something to hide – and based on the word of a Chairman who didn't even read the underlying intelligence, and who has a pattern of cooking up conspiracy theories that don't pan out.

National security experts across the political spectrum and Members on both sides of the aisle have debunked and denounced the Nunes memo as partisan spin, beneath the dignity of Congress.  It is widely held that the impact of the House GOP's shenanigans has caused irreparable harm to the credibility of our law enforcement agencies and only serves to do ‘Putin's job for him,' to quote Senator McCain.

Washington Post Editorial – ‘A Process That Tarnishes the House'

New York Times Editorial – ‘The Republican Plot Against the F.B.I.'

Sacramento Bee – ‘President Trump and Devin Nunes put Politics Above America's Security and Institutions'

NBC News – ‘No, The Nunes Memo Doesn't Vindicate Trump on the Russia Probe'

CNN– ‘Former CIA Director Brennan Says Nunes 'Abused His Office''

Jennifer Rubin, conservative Washington Post columnist – ‘Rep. Nunes Drops His Cherry-Picked Memo: This Is It?!'

CNN– ‘The Real Shock of the Nunes Memo'

AP– ‘Fired FBI Director James Comey Slams Secret GOP Memo as ‘Dishonest And Misleading,' Asks: ‘That's It?''

Time– ‘The Nunes Memo Doesn't Matter. Here's What Does'

Business Insider – ‘The Nunes Memo Fails to Answer the Key Question it is Supposed to Address'

The New York Times – ‘The Nunes Memo is All Smoke, No Fire'

U.S. News & World Report – ‘The Nothing Memo'

Vox – ‘The Nunes Memo is a Dud'

Rolling Stone – ‘The Nunes Memo: Watergate, It Ain't'

Asha Rangappa, former FBI agent – ‘Devin Nunes Tried To Discredit the FBI. Instead, He Proved it's Onto Something.'

CBS – ‘FBI Special Agent Says He's leaving Over Political Attacks Against the Bureau'

Roll Call – ‘FISA Memo Not What Trump Says it is, Some Republicans Say'

Washington Times – ‘Intelligence Community Worried about Nunes Memo's Potential Ripple Effects'

Yahoo – ‘Panetta Warns U.S. Rule of Law at Risk from Trump-FBI Tensions'

And if there are any questions as whether this latest GOP sideshow ‘vindicated' President Trump, look no further than to Trey Gowdy, House Oversight Chairman, Intelligence Committee Member and Benghazi enthusiast:

‘There is a Russia investigation without a dossier.  So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower.  The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. … nothing to do with George Papadopoulos's meeting in Great Britain. … It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier.'

It's time for Speaker Ryan and House Republicans to drop their obstruction campaign.  Enough with distorting intelligence, discrediting U.S. law enforcement and diverting attention from the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal.  Nothing less than the integrity of our democracy is on the line.