If you were under the impression that House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes is merely a tool of the White House with his attempts to shut down the Trump-Russia hearings, his midnight trips to the White House, and his refusal to share the “information” he says he received from a confidential source which supposedly proves Donald Trump was wiretapped, a fellow Republican seemed to confirm those suspicions while appearing on MSNBC Thursday afternoon.
Florida GOP Congressman Ted Yoho was talking to host Craig Melvin about Chairman Nunes, and gave a full-throated defense of the embattled Nunes, saying:
“I know Devin, (and) he’s a man of high integrity and character. I think he will do the right thing. If he feels he’s been compromised and needs to step aside, I’m sure he will. Until he makes that decision I’m not concerned with it.”
But then Yoho made a bizarre transition and seemed to forget that the Constitution divides the three branches of government–executive, judicial, and legislative–into equal but very separate entities which are meant to serve as a check and balance on the other, telling Melvin:
“You have to keep in mind who he works for. He works for the president and answers to the president.”
As a follow-up, Melvin asked Yoho if a member of Congress works for his constituents or the executive branch. To that, Yoho replied:
“You do both. But when in that capacity, if you’ve got information, I’m okay with what he did.”
Then Melvin asked Yoho about the attacks Trump made Thursday morning on the House Freedom Caucus, which Yoho happens to be a member of. Oddly, Yoho blurted out:
“I don’t work for the president, I don’t work for the (House) leadership. I work for the people that sent me here.
Yet the Florida Republican had said Nunes worked for Trump just seconds before, and the MSNBC host made sure and brought that up. Yoho commented:
“As a congressman, they work for their constituents, as a chairman of a committee, he has, okay?”
No wonder the Republicans in Congress can’t manage to get anything done. They don’t even know how the American system of government works!