White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders renewed the administration’s rebuke of Congressional investigations in a Wednesday morning interview on Fox and Friends.
“It is an absolute embarrassment members of Congress are using all their time and resources into attacking the president when they should look to try to solve problems this country has like the president is doing,” Sanders said nearly right out the gate, adding that this “expedition that you’re seeing led by chairman Nadler is truly an embarrassment to Congress and it is hurting our country.”
Sander’s invective came after a night of harried tweeting from President Donald Trump, whose public rhetoric has been singularly focused on disparaging the congressional probe. Trump quoted former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky’s appearance on the Fox News Channel, saying:
Hans Von Spakovsky, “I haven’t seen any evidence of actual violations of the law, which is usually a basis before you start an investigation. Adam Schiff seems to be copying Joseph McCarthy in wanting to open up investigations when they don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2019
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler revealed Monday that he is opening an investigation “into the alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates, and members of his Administration.”
The House Judiciary Committee explained that “as a first step, the Committee has served document requests to 81 agencies, entities, and individuals believed to have information relevant to the investigation,” specifically spanning administration officials, entities connected to the Trump 2016 campaign, and even the FBI.
Hans Von Spakovsky, “I haven’t seen any evidence of actual violations of the law, which is usually a basis before you start an investigation. Adam Schiff seems to be copying Joseph McCarthy in wanting to open up investigations when they don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2019
The broad list of parties from which Nadler requested documents indicates he is launching a broad-based inquiry, ranging from the $130,000 payment to a porn star alleging an affair with Trump to the president’s conduct in the FBI’s Russia investigation. (RELATED: Nadler Unleashes Massive Document Request Into 81 Names Close To Trump)
Trump previewed a possible strategy for dealing with the requests saying, “President Obama, from what they tell me, was under a similar kind of a thing, didn’t get one letter. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t get one letter of the request, many requests were made, they didn’t get a letter.”
The president is likely citing Obama’s invocation of executive privilege in 2012.
