By our yardstick, Rep. Devin Nunes had a terrible week fulfilling his duties as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
In fact, the performance of the Tulare Republican was so inept and bewildering that a fellow Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, told MSNBC’s Greta Van Susteren on Wednesdaythat a bipartisan special select committee should investigate Russia’s meddling into the 2016 presidential campaign. ...
… Bring on the bipartisan special select committee – as was done with Benghazi – and a special prosecutor.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Editorial: Growing indications of Trump campaign malfeasance merit an independent probe
… Republicans in Congress have a stark choice: They can continue to blindly support this president and ignore growing evidence of malfeasance, or they can demonstrate the independent scrutiny that the Constitution requires of them. It’s time to appoint a select committee and special prosecutor to get to the truth.
Arizona Republic: Our View: Get politics out of Russian hacking inquiry
Editorial: Russian election interference demands a truly independent review, not more political theater. … It’s time for an independent commission to investigate this with the seriousness it deserves. ...
Sioux City Journal: OUR OPINION: It's time to appoint a special prosecutor
Add ours to the growing list of voices calling for a special prosecutor, or special counsel, to probe ties between Russia and President Trump and Trump associates.
In an editorial earlier this month, we said we believed Congress capable of producing answers to Russia-Trump questions Americans deserve to have.
Emergence last week of a public, high-profile rift between Republicans and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee suggested otherwise
Dissension within the committee followed the unusual, if not improper decision by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the committee chairman (who was, by the way, a member of Trump's transition team), to give Trump information about transition-related intelligence collection on Wednesday before he talked to his fellow committee members. According to reports, Nunes apologized to the committee on Thursday. On Friday, the partisan committee split widened over Nunes' cancellation of a public committee hearing, related to the panel's investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election, planned for Tuesday. …
The Viriginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA): Editorial: Time for an independent investigation into Russian hacking
ONLY AN independent commission can adequately examine allegations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Any doubts about that were erased by hours of extraordinary questioning and testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday. …
The Derrick, The News-Herald (Oil City, PA): EDITORIAL: Sessions, Russia can't be ignored
It's becoming clearer by the day that to get to the bottom of Russian interference in the presidential election, we need a bipartisan select committee in Congress, plus a special prosecutor. ...
Greensboro, NC News & Record: Our Opinion: Find out the truth
… The consequences are enormous. Either the past president should be prosecuted for a criminal offense or the current president should be exposed for blatant dishonesty. The American people deserve the truth.
The Day (Fairfield, CT): Need for impartial review of Russian ties is now clear
In mid-February and at the start of this month, Day editorials called for Congress to appoint an independent bipartisan commission, with the power to subpoena documents and compel witnesses, to fully investigate Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.
Developments since then have bolstered our argument that if the public is to have any confidence in the conclusions reached, Congress must separate this matter from its normal political procedures.
Additionally, it is time to appoint a special prosecutor, fully independent of the Trump administration, to assess the facts for any potential criminal conduct. …
Daily Hampshire Gazette (Amherst, MA): Editorial: Trump news keeps getting weirder
… We hope that Massachusetts lawmakers will join in the push to appoint an independent prosecutor whose findings will emerge not through tweets but via a nonpartisan pursuit of the truth. ...
The Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY): Editorial: Case just gets stronger for special investigation
… How can the chairman [Nunes] both condemn leaks and use them for his own political and partisan purposes?
The answer is, he can't.
Only a special investigation removed from these partisans will be able to do the job.
San Francisco Chronicle: Trump-Russia investigation is too important for Congress
The House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia looks so divided as to be unable to prove anything — apart from the glaring need for another investigator. ...