House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is on his way out the door, probably to join Fox News, so what better time than now to decry the political environment that he personally fostered?
Chaffetz participated in an interview on Sunday where he condemned the Trump regime for ignoring his requests for documents, but not for reasons you may immediately assume.
You see, Chaffetz also blasted Congress for not standing up for itself, but the documents he requested from the Trump regime had nothing to do holding the regime accountable. Actually, Chaffetz is still more interested in the fake Fast and Furious and IRS scandals.
“I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon. In many ways, it's almost worse because we're getting nothing, and that's terribly frustrating.” [...]
“I find [Jeff Sessions] to be worse than what I saw with (former Attorney General) Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. That's my experience, and that's not what I expected.”
He claimed Sessions had held up his committee's plans to continue investigating two Obama-era matters — the “Fast and Furious” firearms deals and the IRS’ alleged unfair treatment of conservative groups.
Excuse me for a moment.
This may read like a broken record at this point because I've been over this many times before, but all of this can be placed directly at the feet of Chaffetz and former Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa.
No one, not even Republicans, have confidence that a Republican-controlled committee can exercise proper oversight of the executive branch. Democrats don't believe they can because we know what their partisan agenda calls for. Republicans don't believe it because GOP-controlled committees have promised blockbusters for years and they didn't deliver on any of them. From Solyndra, to Fast and Furious, to the fake IRS scandal, to motherfucking Benghazi, the GOP didn't find a single incriminating thing. They spent nearly a decade investigating the Obama administration and all they got were some t-shirts.
Congressional oversight may be a joke today, but Chaffetz wrote the joke.
“Congress doesn't stand up for itself,” he said when asked if the legislative branch is “broken.”
“I think it’s really lost its way...The legislative branch is going to get weaker and weaker.”
When presented with evidence that Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice; when presented with evidence that Jeff Sessions is 'worse than Loretta Lynch' and that he lied to Congress under oath about his contacts with Russian officials, what did Chaffetz do?
He decided to relitigate Hillary Clinton's fucking emails.
If the Trump regime is ignoring requests from Congress, it's because they know Republicans in Congress are pushovers who care more about tax cuts than corruption.