Given all of the terrible news from the Twin Cities and the COVID-19 pandemic, this actually qualifies as a palate-cleanser. An awesome palate-cleanser, to be accurate.
This Twitter slapfight started out as Richard Grenell v Brad Dayspring Tuesday, followed by Grenell v Samantha Power Wednesday. Paul Bedard picked up on the arguments made by the now-former acting DNI on Twitter with members of the Obama administration over the Russia-collusion fiasco. Bedard also reported on Grenell’s interview with Mark Levin, in which the current US Ambassador to Germany said that his status as an outsider had Democrats worried from the start:
In a 19-minute interview on the Mark Levin Show, the longtime public servant who recently was ambassador to Germany said that the political-media axis in Washington is toxic and geared to thwart reforms that threaten its operation.
“An outsider coming in with fresh eyes is like the enemy because you’re going to look at things differently,” he told the popular conservative talk radio host and author. The audio of their discussion is below.
Without giving details, he also indicated that the Obama White House was fully aware of the investigation on alleged and later dismissed Russian collusion with President Trump’s 2016 campaign. He told Levin, “There is no possible way that it wasn’t known inside the White House and that multiple layers of people knew about this.” …
“It was the political people and the politicians who were ignoring the problems, and the career people were clamoring for reform,” he said. “An overwhelming majority [of career officials] hate the leaks, they hate the manipulation coming from Congress, they hate how oversight is done through a letter, and then, you don’t talk to anybody about it, and the briefings are ‘gotcha’ briefings. That’s not good,” he told Levin.
All of this activity caught the attention of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who had jousted with Grenell last week. For some reason, Swalwell decided to restart the fight yesterday, and … it didn’t go well for one of the main Russia-collusion propagators:
Tick tock. “Those are coming.” Well, you’re no longer director and the Flynn tapes never came. All you have to show for your work is the dirt on your boots from shoveling and burying evidence for @realDonaldTrump. #ShowUsTheTape https://t.co/ldYLn9LcQl
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 28, 2020
They are coming. There’s a thoughtful process to transparency. For years you went on TV spreading the Russian propaganda – knowing the entire time that not one single person under oath from your committee saw any collusion. Not one. It’s shameful! https://t.co/APPwAT05DQ
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
You spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars weaponizing the US government & telling Americans there was massive collusion. Your own committee interviewed more than 50 people under oath & they all said the same thing: they know of no collusion. But on TV you said the opposite. https://t.co/UpDdaSeRXi
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
You said the opposite knowing what the 50 people said under oath – and yet for years you didn’t want their transcripts to be made public.
Transparency is required! Americans deserve to see how this hoax developed and who silenced those who raised doubts early on. https://t.co/zNGqnCLDtu
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
I read the transcripts. There were lots of questions from Democrats. Lots. You just didn’t find any collusion when they were under oath – so the transcripts were the only thing you didn’t leak to the DC media. https://t.co/tx4seOXbHq
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
Oh, I read. I read it all. And you lied about collusion. And Americans who see the facts that you tried to hide are furious. https://t.co/WrARy1fWjG
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
I’m talking about how you lied to the American people over and over again. You said publicly you saw lots of Russian collusion. But the many Republicans and Democrats you questioned under oath all said they saw NO COLLUSION. You knew what they said in private. You lied. https://t.co/HSKuIaGAHE
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
Even the points that Swalwell thinks supports his position are nothingburgers. Manafort sharing polling data is meaningless, since that data was widely available elsewhere and (given Team Trump’s then-dismissive attitude toward GOTV data) was also probably more reliable elsewhere too. The two comments Trump made in public were foolish, certainly, but aren’t evidence of anything else other than bad judgment. The same goes for the Trump Tower meeting, a stunningly amateurish bungle by Don Jr, but also had no import other than to point out how dumb an idea it was. Democrats had three years to connect those to any evidence of collusion, and both they and the special counsel came up entirely empty.
As for the timing of the investigation, this claim from Swalwell defies any sense at all. Yes, Republicans controlled the initial investigation, but Adam Schiff continued it after the midterms and controlled the transcripts as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Despite a unanimous vote on the issue, Schiff stalled on releasing the transcripts — until Grenell decided to release them directly based on that prior authorization. And in case Swalwell missed it, Grenell did just declassify the Flynn transcripts, if not the actual recordings, which means they will be coming out shortly.
At any rate, it’s not clear just when Swalwell realized that he was losing this argument. Probably at this point:
I was there 3 months. I declassified them. Along with the transcripts of people under oath, the unmaskings AFTER the election, and a few more things to come.
I’m for transparency. And letting the American public see the facts. https://t.co/PCxQdU4bbF
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 28, 2020
All Swalwell could muster was a lame “Bye, Richard” in response, alas. But it was entertaining right up to the end nonetheless.
