With All Due Apologies, He Must Be Rebuked

These guys can't be let off the hook.

Politico claims

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes apologized to members of his panel Thursday for not informing Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat, before going public with allegations that Trump transition messages were inadvertently intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies.

A committee aide said Nunes (R-Calif.) apologized "for not sharing information about the documents he saw with the minority before going public” and that “he pledged to work with them on this issue.”

Reuters believes

The Republican head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee apologized on Thursday for the way he handled sensitive allegations about U.S. spy agency surveillance of President Donald Trump's team.

Representative Devin Nunes was criticized by colleagues on Wednesday for calling a news conference to announce that the communications of members of the team that ran Trump's transition to the presidency were swept up in incidental surveillance targeting foreigners...

A Republican intelligence committee aide said on Thursday that Nunes had apologized to Democrats on the panel.

"Yes, he apologized to the minority on the committee today for going public and to the (White House) with his announcement yesterday before sharing the information with the minority. He pledged to work with them on this issue and share information with them about it," the aide told Reuters.

CBS News maintains

The chairman of the House Intelligence committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), apologized to committee Democrats in a meeting on Thursday morning according to Congressional Democrat on the panel. 

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) told reporters waiting outside of the meeting that Nunes apologized to the ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), during the meeting. A senior Republican committee staffer confirmed that account and said that Nunes pledged to work more with committee Democrats.

And while referring to Politico, News Corp's New York Post claimed

The House Intelligence chairman has apologized to his members for not informing them of new information about government surveillance of President Trump and his campaign team before sharing it with the press and the president.

Specifically, Devin Nunes apologized for going public before telling the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

"Specifically,"  he did not. Yet even Mother Jones' David Corn comments "On Thursday morning, at a private committee meeting, he apologized to his colleagues." However, the sentient, Corn adds "but, according to a committee source, Nunes would not say what he thought he had done wrong or explain his actions."

Nunes would not say what he thought he had done wrong or explain his actions.  Here, I must interject with my own "apology": I'm sorry if anyone has taken offense at anything I may have written here.

Similarly sentient, two Washington Post reporters wrote Nunes "made his apology" but added

Nunes’s apology was “generic,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said on CNN, adding that it was “not clear” precisely which actions his apology covered.

Not surprisingly, the broadcast media was worse, in most instances lazily accepting the meme that committee chairman Nunes had "apologized" or issued "an apology."

Not at all.  Representative Speier not only referred to Nunes' remarks as "generic" but realizes "he just apologized- he didn't specify what his apology was about."





That, as the gentle and diplomatic lady from California seems to understand, is no apology at all. This failure to understand that an apology must include an actual statement of regret for having erred extended even to Lawrence O'Donnell, who stated Thursday night "Chairman Devin Nunes apologized to the committee for delivering intelligence information directly to the President in the White House."

And that is remarkable, O'Donnell recognizing- as seen in the video below- that the biggest villain in the drama occasioned by Devin Nunes' reprehensible behavior is the Speaker of the House, the big fake, Paul Davis Ryan, who approved the congressman's action.  "You got to stick by the judgements you make," Nunes says, in defense of his action.    His decision cannot be tolerated and he can be removed only by the Speaker from the chairmanship, and demanding no less of Paul Ryan is an act of capitulation.











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