On Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr insisted that intelligence agencies under former President Barack Obama spied on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. He did not declare that this spying was illegal, but the spying is unsettling regardless.
PJMedia
“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. It’s a big deal,” Barr said in a Senate hearing on Wednesday. “There are a lot of rules put in place to make sure that there’s an adequate basis before our law enforcement agencies get involved in political surveillance. I’m not suggesting that those rules were violated but I think it’s important to look at that.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) pressed him on the issue of spying. “You’re not suggesting, though, that spying occurred?” she asked.
“I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur,” Barr replied. “The question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated.”
Adam Schiff is unhappy.
The casual suggestion by the nation’s top law enforcement officer of “spying” may please Donald Trump, who rails against a “deep state coup,” but it strikes another destructive blow to our democratic institutions.
Twitter
The hardworking men and women at the DOJ and FBI deserve better.
Now that the power struggle in Washington is out in the open what is to be done about it? One option is to try to put the toothpaste back in the tube, hard but possible. Political conflict is one of those one way functions that is easy to start but much more difficult to reverse.
If the truce is to be re-established a group of truce-makers must be found on each side. Yet superficially at least these are nowhere to be seen. On every side everyone seems raring to go.
The fundamental problem is that there is no constituency for burying the hatchet yet, except in someone’s back.