Trump not releasing the democratic memo is aiding a backlash

Some lawmakers have pointed out Trump’s hypocrisy and demand that he #ReleaseTheDemMemo

By Nicole Karlis

Senior Writer

Published February 10, 2018 3:16PM (EST)

 (Getty/Mandel Ngan)
(Getty/Mandel Ngan)

The battle of the memo continues. On Saturday morning, Donald Trump explained on Twitter that he won’t be releasing the democratic memo written by Democratic House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff unless it’s in “proper form.” The memo is a rebuttal of the memo that was released by Republican Chairman Devin Nunes.

"The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency,” he tweeted. “Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!"

Trump’s actions and behavior regarding the memo are hypocritical, to say the least. Recall, on Friday he said it would be released “soon.”

"It's gonna be released soon," Trump told reporters at the White House, adding, "We're going to release a letter."

Recall again, prior to the Nunes memo, the FBI urged him not to release it.

"With regard to the House Intelligence Committee's memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it," a statement from the FBI said. "As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

Suddenly when it comes to the democratic memo, accuracy matters to Trump?

His unwillingness to be fair and cooperate with the democratic memo is indeed aiding a backlash. Rep. Schiff tweeted about Trump’s hypocrisy on Saturday.

“Mr. President, what you call ‘political’ are actually called facts, and your concern for sources and methods would be more convincing if you hadn’t decided to release the GOP memo (“100%”) before reading it and over the objections of the FBI,” Schiff tweeted.

Other lawmakers have chimed in sharing similar sentiments too.

Congressman Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted that he thinks Trump is “intentionally hiding relevant information from the American people in order to mislead the public.”

Senator Bob Casey said it’s clear Trump released the Nunes memo to attack law enforcement.


By Nicole Karlis

Nicole Karlis is a senior writer at Salon, specializing in health and science. Tweet her @nicolekarlis.

MORE FROM Nicole Karlis


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Adam Schiff Democratic Memo Donald Trump Nunes Memo Ted Lieu