The Rachel Maddow segment about the taped comments of Devin Nunes at a fundraiser for GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state has been well covered here at DKos, but I think a few significant points have been missed.
First, I have not seen any mention of the importance of the notion that only Jeff Sessions, Robert Mueller or Congress can save Trump from the effects of his disastrous time in office. To me, it is more interesting that no mention was made of Trump being able to save himself by replacing Sessions or Rod Rosenstein, or firing Mueller. I take this as a tacit acknowledgement by the GOP that Trump no longer has any of those options at his disposal. This is important because it indicates that even the GOP can read the tea leaves regarding public sentiment should Trump try any of those methods to save his hide.
Second, many of us are by nature detail-driven analytic thinkers who parse any evidence for the meaning of what is actually written / spoken. I am inclined to step out of this trap regarding these comments by Nunes, and think instead about the context he (and the entire GOP House caucus) are in regarding the 2018 midterms. They need corporate money, as many stories have been published about large Dem advantages in acquiring grass-roots small-dollar donations. At the same time, they are pretty sure a House impeachment of Rosenstein would have less chance of conviction in the Senate than that of a snowflake in hell.
As I see it, he had no choice but to spin the lie to his funders that the Senate would not have time to process both an impeachment conviction and a Supreme Court seat confirmation. He knows as well as we do that the impeachment will not go anywhere near where he would like it to — it is already down the drain and lost in the swamp. He also knows that the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh is not a slam dunk.
From what we have seen over the past 19 months (or more), Nunes seems to have his own skin in the game and desperately needs any help he can get to keep not only Trump but himself from being exposed, should the expected Blue Wave arrive in November. Nunes was going to spin any story he could to feed his (and the GOP’s) addiction to corporate money. A sob story about wanting to impeach but being unable to — because time — is nothing other than what we should expect from this miserable S.O.B.