In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall – a physical partition – separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee’s secure spaces, according to multiple committee sources. It’s expected to happen this spring.
For now, some Republican committee members deny knowing anything about it, while strongly suggesting the division is the brainchild of the committee’s chairman, Devin Nunes, R-California.
“I’m not part of that decision,” said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas. “You’ve got to talk to Devin. I don’t know what they’re trying to do one way or the other.”
“I swear to God I didn’t know that,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Florida, when asked about the plan. While acknowledging a wall might not be constructive for the committee’s work, he said, “The level of trust and the level of everything down there is – it’s poison. It’s absolute poison down there.”
Rooney said one reason for the tension is an erosion of trust, exacerbated by an ongoing ethics investigation into the “entire Republican staff,” including “the woman up front that answers the phone” for alleged leaks. He later added that the matter was being handled by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Bipartisanship, he said, “is gone. It’s gone from that committee.”
A spokesman for the panel offered no comment on either issue – plans for the wall or the apparent ethics investigation. The Office of Congressional Ethics did not immediately reply to a request for more information.
A spokesman for the minority also declined to comment.
While other House committees commonly have some divide between their majority and minority staff, for a committee whose history, broadly, and whose burden, arguably, is to be functionally bipartisan, the plan for the wall – in all its unfortunate symbolism – is a troubling sign of things to come.
It raises new questions about the committee’s ability to complete its sputtering investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and even to conduct its regular oversight of the country’s 17 intelligence agencies.
……..
- Discussion
-
GOPers on House Intelligence Cmte plan to construct an actual wall – a physical partition – separating GOP and Dem staffers in the committee's secure spaces.
GOP strongly suggests it's Nunes' idea https://t.co/mFM39YTSaC
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) February 8, 2018
Nunes is destroying the House Intelligence Committee as an independent & above-politics overseer of America’s most sensitive secrets; he’s transforming it into a Trumpist PR shop, war room https://t.co/rSfX1Dgew2
— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 8, 2018
I'm biased. I'm partisan. I've made a career out of those two traits. But sometimes you have to be able to admit when the guys on your team are dragging everything down. Cut bait, GOP leadership.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) February 8, 2018
Looks like Trump is finally going to build his “wall”.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.