Chaffetz calls out Democratic hypocrisy on subpoenas, says Obama staff never fully complied with his summonses
Former Republican lawmaker Jason Chaffetz, who once chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says Democrats are overreaching with their testimony requests for the Trump administration.
Former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault-Newman said Thursday that it was "obvious" President Donald Trump was "trying to hide something" when he refused to comply with congressional subpoenas surrounding the Russia investigation.
"I think what you're going to see is classic Trump. Trump is going to try to create chaos so that he can distract from what's very obvious — that Donald Trump is hiding something from the American people," she told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"He knows that it's something that would affect his presidency and keep him from ever being re-elected."
She went on to speculate that the Mueller report's redacted text outlined "a very clear, clear process of trying to have a relationship with foreign entities that would advance [Trump]."
MUELLER REPORT CONTAINS NEARLY 900 REDACTIONS
"We know that Donald Trump and the campaign took advantage of foreign actors who impacted his election," she added.
Trump has long maintained that the Russia investigation was a "witch hunt" and declared "Game Over" after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report, released last week, did not formally accuse him of either obstruction of justice or conspiracy with Russia.
Congressional Democrats vowed, however, to continue investigating the president as the report outlined 10 concerns related to obstruction of justice.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. subpoenaed White House counsel Donald McGahn over one of those concerns, but Trump has dismissed potential staff testimonies as unnecessary.
“The subpoena is ridiculous. ... I have been the most transparent president and administration in the history of our country by far,” Trump said Wednesday.
Manigault-Newman suggested that as Trump continued facing pressure from Congress, he might pull from a "list," created by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon and current White House aide Stephen Miller, of "shocking proposals," to distract the press.
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"They have this list of these very shocking proposals that it would come up with them even when Steve Bannon was there and Steve Miller. And they would just kind of keep them onto the side and whenever they needed to throw a handgrenade to just blow up the press or take over the front covers of the newspaper, they would pull out one of these very shocking proposals — many of them dealt with something trying to eradicate one of Barack Obama's signature legislative accomplishments."
When MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski pressed Manigault-Newman on whether she had seen the list, the former White House aide said other staff members would talk about those policies, which included things like child separation at the border.
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