While most of the nation’s attention is fixed on Thursday’s highly anticipated testimony by former FBI Director James Comey, Rachel Maddow explained on Wednesday that today’s hearings with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and NSA Head Mike Rogers represent a dark and troubling turn in this ongoing saga.
Maddow not only noted that today’s non-answers from Coats and Rogers are unprecedented, but that Congress must quickly find a way to fight back if this is the new strategy from the administration.
Video:
Maddow slams administration officials for refusing to answer basic questions about Trump’s obstruction: pic.twitter.com/9wG3plvm9n
— Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) June 8, 2017
Maddow said:
What happened today … this is a really big turning point in the overall question of whether we as citizens are going to get to the bottom of what happened here. If administration officials just start saying, “No, I’m not going to answer. No, Congress has no authority to learn this stuff. No, the American people just don’t get an answer to these questions.” … That’s new for this administration, that’s new for this investigation thus far. It’s a big deal. It’s the first sign of how the Trump administration is going to fight this now that the president has his new external legal counsel apparently coordinating this fight. But if the answer is, “No, you don’t get answers because we don’t feel like answering your questions,” I’m not sure Congress knows yet how it’s going to fight back against that new strategy. I don’t even know if Congress is going to fight back against it. That question is newly, newly important.
The refusal of these two key officials to answer the most basic questions about Trump’s interference in the Russia investigation speaks volumes about what Trump said and did behind closed doors. If Trump hadn’t acted at all inappropriately, it would have been easy for the two men to deny the allegations – but they couldn’t.
As Democratic Sen. Heinrich said to Coats during today’s hearing, “I think your unwillingness to answer a very basic question speaks volumes.”
Not only does it speak volumes, but it also represents a frightening and dark turning point in this investigation where we now have an administration that thinks it doesn’t need to be held accountable for anything.
As Rachel Maddow said on Wednesday, if this is the new strategy from the White House – to just remain silent when the American people demand answers – then Congress better come up with a way to fight back, and fast.
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