The Democratically led House committees have been investigating a number of cases that the Republicans let slide during their two years in leadership. As the progress of these committees unfolds, people begin to see the underbelly of the Donald Trump administration.
Take the Senate Intelligence Committee led by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), perhaps the only Republican with the courage to stand up to the president. Of course, he has announced that he will be retiring. The committee subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. only after he stood up the committee on not one but two occasions. He was the first in POTUS’ immediate family to receive a subpoena.
Burr has been taking heavy fire from Republicans, all who want to appease the president. For some strange reason, the Senate Republicans have ceded all of their co-equal power to the president. The senator explained the sequence of events to his fellow Republicans at a private GOP caucus luncheon. Three individuals spoke to the Associated Press (AP) on the condition of anonymity about the event.
Senator Burr explained that the president’s eldest son freely offered to come to interviews with the committee for two separate scheduled interviews. His committee started working with Trump Jr. beginning in December. The original interviews were set for the months of March and April.
The purpose of interviewing the president’s son was to review his earlier testimony in 2017 and clarify some issues about that testimony. The committee also wanted to ask him about the Trump Tower meeting with a Russian attorney and several other Russians to acquire “dirt” on then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign season.
When the Republicans found out that Burr’s committee had subpoenaed Trump Jr., they were irate. In fact, some argued that the president’s son should not comply with the subpoena.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair and Trump most enthusiastic water carrier Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox News Sunday and remarked that if he had been Trump Jr.’s attorney, he would have said:
‘I would tell him, “You don’t need to go back into this environment anymore.”‘
Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent out this tweet:
‘It’s time to move on & start focusing on issues that matter to Americans.’
The president’s private attorney and self-described fixer Michael Cohen testified before a House committee last February. There, he said that he had discussed the Moscow Trump Tower project with the president’s eldest son about 10 times. Yet, when Trump Jr. testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said he was only “peripherally aware” of the project.
Of course, Trump Jr. would be frustrated with the subpoena. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said that he could understand how the president’s son felt. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) added that he saw “no need” for the younger Trump to be subpoenaed.
Burr has stated that he did not anticipate running in the 2022 elections after three terms. He admittedly took news discussed in an earlier top secret Gang of Eight briefing directly to the White House. However, he has run his committee’s Russian investigation in a rare show of bipartisanship. Both he and lead Democrat Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) have worked in tandem.
