Jamie Raskin Exposes GOP’s Bogus Investigations

0
671

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, spoke out this week against glaring hypocrisy from Republicans in dealing with classified documents that have been recovered from locations associated with Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and now Mike Pence.

“Committee Democrats have been steadfast in our commitment to the preservation of presidential records and the protection of classified documents,” Raskin said. “As the Committee with primary jurisdiction over presidential and federal records, we remain unwavering in our pursuit of these goals. My Republican colleagues’ glaring failure to acknowledge that former President Trump refused to cooperate with the government and continually rebuffed calls to turn over thousands of presidential records and hundreds of classified documents illustrates that they are simply not serious about these goals as a basic policy commitment.”

Contrary to rants from Trump about the supposed willingness of federal authorities to turn away from imagined corruption involving Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland actually appointed a special counsel for dealing with Biden’s situation. “It is critical that we allow the Justice Department to carry out its investigations and follow the facts in specific cases, and we should work together on a bipartisan basis to improve all relevant federal policies and practices,” Raskin added in his remarks. “There is plainly a lot of work to do.”

Predictably, Republicans have engaged in nearly breathless outrage over the docs found (broadly speaking) with Biden, even though there is no evidence of obstruction from the president’s team in its communications with the federal authorities handling the retrieval of the docs themselves. A high-profile segment on Fox News over the weekend featuring House Oversight chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) even saw the Republican claiming the circumstances of the Biden situation suggested an at least potential cover-up and possible connections to “influence peddling,” as though there was — at least potentially — an intentional conspiracy and improper access provided. Comer noted the spread across a series of locations in Washington, D.C., and Delaware where documents were, according to the info he was referencing, either temporarily kept or later recovered.

Where’s the outrage about Trump? Comer also acted incredulous during that Fox hit at the possibility of profiting off a family name — which remains much of exactly what the Trumps do! Does he think Trump Jr. gets speaking engagements in politics and on related circuits for his cutting-edge business acumen? Even if he’s not paid, it boosts the Trump brand, in which he remains invested.

Even Fox correspondent Peter Doocy carried on with the ignorance, asking the White House press secretary during a briefing whether there was any precedent for a candidate running for president even after the FBI searched their “sock drawer.” He was trying to refer to Biden, who saw feds (without a warrant, suggesting cooperation is ongoing) look for additional docs at a Delaware residence of his. Doocy didn’t mention the Trump case and claimed, as though he just came back to earth after years away, that he honestly didn’t know the answer to his original, ignorant query, though Trump’s right there.