We expected that the House Republicans wouldn’t be pleased when the FBI opted not to indict Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state. But we didn’t expect Paul Ryan and his not-so-merry men and women to throw a full-on tantrum. In the last 48 hours, the House GOP has threatened to launch yet another taxpayer-funded witch hunt against Hillary. At least one high-ranking Republican also called for a government shutdown unless Hillary is indicted.
The tantrum began on Wednesday night, with Ryan himself taking the lead. On Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” Ryan announced the House would hold hearings into the decision not to press charges. Watch here.
Ryan claimed FBI director James Comey’s decision not to recommend charges against Hillary “underscores the belief that the Clintons live above the law.” He also said that House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz would ask Comey to testify about the investigation, saying that “there are a lot of unanswered questions here.” Comey will testify before the Oversight Committee on Thursday.
The House Republicans doubled down on their tantrum on Wednesday. Ryan demanded that Hillary not receive classified briefings once she is formally nominated. In typical style, Ryan made a not-so-veiled threat–if Director of National Intelligence James Clapper doesn’t cut off Hillary’s access to classified information, he will at least have to look into whether Congress can do so.
Later, House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte announced he would summon Attorney General Loretta Lynch before his committee on July 12. Goodlatte thought the lack of an indictment was “uniquely troubling” since Lynch had a private chat with Bill Clinton last week. Never mind that Lynch stated she would accept the recommendations of Comey and career prosecutors who have no partisan ties.
But perhaps the most unhinged moment of all–at least so far–belongs to Congressman Darrell Issa. On Wednesday’s edition of “Breitbart News Daily,” Issa mused that the House GOP ought to shut down the government unless there’s an indictment. Listen here.
Issa told host Stephen Bannon that if Hillary isn’t indicted, it would present “a genuine constitutional challenge.” Baldwin agreed, claiming that this was indeed a constitutional crisis.
Issa argued that Congress has the “absolute obligation to rebalance” the three branches of government if necessary. As part of that effort to rebalance, he suggested that the GOP leadership to attach a rider to a must-pass bill that would allow Congress or a special counsel to go before a court and bring criminal charges. If Obama threatens to veto any bill with such a rider, Issa believes it would expose Obama as “clearly wanting to seize power.”
Issa went further–if Obama threatens to veto such a bill, Congress ought to threaten a government shutdown over the issue. While he himself has voted against government shutdowns in the past, Issa sees this as more fundamental than “small points” such as Obamacare. In his view, nothing less than “the actual balance of our republic” is at stake. He believes his fellow Republicans ought to ask themselves a simple question:
“Are you willing to shut down the government if the president, time and time again, is unwilling to accept a limitation on his power, that is only a limitation, that he cannot escape the courts’ decision on his actions in an expeditious way?”
Never mind that the courts can limit executive actions, as has been amply demonstrated in just the last few weeks.
If these rants by Ryan, Goodlatte and Issa were intended to pressure Lynch, it didn’t work. Late Wednesday, Lynch accepted the FBI’s recommendation that no charges be filed.
Where was the hand-wringing when it emerged that classified data was found in Colin Powell’s personal email account? And where was the tantrum when it emerged that staffers for Condi Rice got classified information in their personal emails as well? Unless I missed something, I didn’t hear demands for hearings and government shutdowns then. Let’s call this for what it is, folks–another attempt to launch a witch hunt on our dime.
