McCain: Congress doesn't have 'credibility' to handle Russia probes
Source: The Hill
Congress no longer has the credibility to independently tackle a probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Trump and his associates' ties to Moscow, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday.
"It's a bizarre situation, and what I think, the reason why I'm calling for this select committee or a special committee, is I think that this back-and-forth and what the American people have found out so far that no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone," McCain told MSNBC's Greta Van Susteren. "And I don't say that lightly."
McCain's comments come amid an increasingly bitter feud that erupted between members of the House Intelligence Committee earlier Wednesday, after the panel's chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) claimed that he had seen evidence that the U.S. intelligence community incidentally surveilled members of Trump's transition team.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/325330-mccain-congress-doesnt-have-credibility-to-handle-russia-probes
GP6971
(31,146 posts)He probably won't support a Special Prosecutor.
jrthin
(4,835 posts)My take too.
This is the kind of shit he fought against while in the military. McCain is an old cold warrior and this crap with Russian seems to piss him off. And he hates Trump for the loser getting captured comment.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)He has nothing to lose. He's most likely not going to run again and he has a chance to be a hero again.
Remember. the heroes of Watergate were the Republicans who put country above party. My hopes are that McCain (and maybe Graham) will do the same.
kairos12
(12,859 posts)cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)in this whole affair but the real question is will the special prosecutor be a special prosecutor or a "special" prosecutor.
Mc Mike
(9,114 posts)see a clear threat to himself and his own power is posed by dRumpf.
Still, weasel words, special 'committee' instead of special 'prosecutor'.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,173 posts)He's the party spokesman for the 'rational, reasonable, but stanch conservative". (His brand used to be "The Maverick" but never mind, that was before.) He gets away with statements another Republican would be tarred and feathered for. But its all a grand setup from the grand old party. Because in future, when he endorses some sham one-sided committee, it will all seem so obviously acceptable if its coming from such an ethical warrior meme he's built for himself.
dalton99a
(81,482 posts)Skittles
(153,160 posts)they are CORRUPT and ALWAYS PUT PARTY ABOVE COUNTRY
TomCADem
(17,387 posts)You always hope that some Republicans can on occasion act responsibly...
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mccain-bizarre-behavior-by-house-intel-committee-leaders/ar-BByBGyC?ocid=spartandhp
After high-stakes back and forth between the top Democrat and Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain labeled their conduct "bizarre" on Wednesday and said partisan fighting had cost Congress its credibility to investigate Russian interference the election.
"No longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone, and I don't say that lightly," McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told MSNBC's Greta Van Susteren.
McCain renewed his call for a congressional select committee or independent commission to investigate the matter a step Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have so far resisted taking.
Earlier in the day, Devin Nunes, the Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced that he had new evidence showing communications of President Donald Trump's transition officials may have been incidentally collected by U.S. intelligence surveillance.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)Grizzled Ol Granddad
(73 posts)And, for once, I'm rooting for the guy I enthusiastically voted against in '08.
JudyM
(29,236 posts)Grizzled Ol Granddad
(73 posts)THANK YOU!!!!!
JudyM
(29,236 posts)Grizzled Ol Granddad
(73 posts)That guy is bad news!
JudyM
(29,236 posts)LovingA2andMI
(7,006 posts)John McCain says the right thing and on this one, he's right on point. Congress has NO BUSINESS WHAT-SO-EVER handling an investigation against Cheeto. It is HIGH TIME for an INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR and NOW!!!
FakeNoose
(32,637 posts)He said the Senate shouldn't be investigating this.
He wants it to be turned over to a House of Representatives investigating committee.
Well OK fine, it's still going to be run by the GOP in any case, since they have majority in both houses.
Right Senator McCain?
No, it's not fine! It should be investigated by a completely unrelated, non-political group.
Like maybe, how about a REAL independent prosecutor - not Comey for sure!
LovingA2andMI
(7,006 posts)He's not open to an Independent Investigation or Committee, either. So with that, a deal might can be made.
SchrodingersCatbox
(89 posts)It's the actually DOING part where he loses interest
Lakerstan
(679 posts)This is a GREAT article that explains a lot about the Manafort relationship, but has some good information about why McCain may not be a fan of the whole Manafort, Davis, Stone clan...
Snip..
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/paul_manafort_isn_t_a_gop_retread_he_s_made_a_career_of_reinventing_tyrants.html
In 2005, John McCain received a call from a staffer on the National Security Council. There was a problem, the staffer told the senator. The man orchestrating McCains presidential campaign was Paul Manaforts partner, a lobbyist named Rick Davis. The administration wanted the senators help dialing back the duos work in Ukraine, two top McCain aides told me. By promoting enemies of the Orange Revolution, they were undermining American policy.
The call came after Manafort and Davis had already drawn McCain into their eastern escapades. It wasnt just Ukraine. That year, the pair had consulted on behalf of pro-independence forces in the tiny principality of Montenegro, which wanted to exit Serbia and become its own sovereign republic. On the surface, this sounded noble enough, so noble that McCain called Montenegros independence the greatest European democracy project since the end of the Cold War.
A report in the Nation, however, showed that the Montenegrin campaign wasnt remotely what McCain described. The independence initiative was championed by a fantastically wealthy Russian mogul called Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska had parochial reasons for promoting independence. He had just purchased Montenegros aluminum industry and intended to buy broader swaths of its economy. But he was also doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin, on whose good graces the fate of all Russian business ultimately hangs. The Nation quoted Deripaska boasting that the Kremlin wanted an area of influence in the Mediterranean.
Manafort and Davis didnt just snooker McCain into trumpeting their clients cause; they endangered him politically, by arranging a series of meetings with Deripaska, who the U.S. had barred from entering the country because of his ties to organized crime. In 2006, they steered McCain to attend a dinner with the oligarch at a chalet near Davos, where Deripaska speechified for the 40 or so guests. (The Washington Post reported that the oligarch sent Davis and Manafort a thank-you note for arranging to see the senator in such an intimate setting.) Seven months later, Manafort and Davis took McCain to celebrate his 70th birthday with Deripaska on a yacht moored in the Adriatic.
Not everyone within the McCain camp felt comfortable with this relationship. One group of aides pushed hard for McCain to fire Rick Davis for sullying the senator with the firms muck. McCain intended to do just that. The senator had backed the cause of Ukrainian democracy and he couldnt stomach his top aides firm working to undermine it. Whats more, aides had come to McCain with the rumor that Deripaska had purchased an apartment in Trump Tower for Davis and Manafort. But in the moment, McCain lost his nerve, as his aides have recounted the episode. Davis supplied a tear-filled soliloquy that saved his job. Ricks plea somehow workedand that was the root of the divisions that tore apart the campaign, one of McCains top advisers told me.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)But I don't see him calling for a special committee. McCain always seems to be about 80% there but never willing to commit to the remaining 20%.
BootinUp
(47,144 posts)ffr
(22,669 posts)and seek asylum from Putin here fairly quickly. He'd be smart to do so, but I think he'll double-down that this is all fake news.
If tRumpcare goes down tomorrow, it'll prove that the resistance is an official movement for the United States and his agenda may be doomed, as Carter's was in the 1970s.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)a) McCain is 80 and never going to run again
b) Has a clear reason to give payback to the GOP that continued to primary him every time he turned around.
I bet he will.
wishstar
(5,269 posts)All those Repoub congresscritters are only concerned with their 2018 election prospects and keeping their money infusions
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)helped dump the body of evidence.
riversedge
(70,205 posts)HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)Well hello Judicial, this is your moment.
JudyM
(29,236 posts)but what form could that take? Would be great if someone could figure it out.
If this doesn't sort itself out ethically, we may need an international court of justice to steep in.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)The second fact is that congress is run by republicans.
Political ads just write themselves.