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test today at Quest COVID nineteen dot com. Good true, we have more Cardi B with the Cardi B again there, Michael, what are you? Welcome to the Armstrong and get a show the most excellent Mike demonus congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives for the Washington Post. Mike has joined us to discuss Ariana Grande pulling out of the Grammy telecast. I didn't hear that. I'm kidding, Mike. I just wanted to slip that in briefly. How are you, sir? Before
were going forward? Devastay didn't know about Ariana ground before we go forward. She's got the number one chief is investigating her, he says, desperation because she got that tattoo that turned out to be Korean barbecue. No, it's just an argument over what song would be sung. Uh. Speaking of singing songs, though, we'll be singing the song of investigations for quite some time. Mike as the gosh, how many investigations of the president are about to get started? Well,
it depends on how you define of the president. If you include you know, the business, the campaign, and the the administration, the agencies. I mean, I couldn't begin to give you a uh a number, but just keep in mind there's about twenty standing House committees and almost all of those are are going to have some piece of that. You're going to have investigations soap, and most of them are going to be into the administration and agencies and
things that they're doing. But you know, the Intelligence Committee, the Oversight Committee, the Financial Services Committee, UM, are all looking at the business and looking at the president in various aspects of his personal dealings. Um. It's it's a lot, no doubt about it. Well, so Cheff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, he laid out a five point investigation that many set felt was broader than even previously expected, and it was suspected to be pretty broad. So what
are what are what are the five points? Roughly? Well, I mean in the broadest terms, he says that he's the Intelligence Committee is gonna look at whether the president is compromised in some way due to his business entanglements abroad. Uh. You know this is you know, certainly larger than what the Intelligence Committee under Republican majority was looking at, which was very narrowly focused on the question of Rosan collision.
And you know, crafts or frustrated throughout um the past two years that you know, they were not that Chairman Nuns was not following leads. Now there's no telling how broad Adam Schiff is going to sort of cast his net here. Can he do whatever he wants? I remember Cummings on on the Oversight Committee when he was on sixty Minutes the other night, he said, we can investigate anything. Uh. Well,
the Oversight Committee does statutorily have extremely broad jurisdiction. The Intelligence Committee has a narrower jurisdiction, you know, relating to the activity of the intelligence community. Well, I guess my question is do you have to have a certain amount like you know, the police have to have they have to get a warrant and show probable cause and all this sort of stuff before or can can he just go down any road he wants because we think there
may have been something broadly with Russia. You're you know, the guardrails are twofold. You know that some of these committees do have statutory jurisdiction that they've got a respect they can't you know sort of you know, like the Foreign Affairs Committee can't go look at the Department Hope
Land Security because it's just not in their portfolio. But you know, the more important guard rail for these committees is just politics and whether you know, there's a perception that they're overreaching, and whether they have the support of their party leadership and the members the majority members of
the committee. But as long as these chairmen have that, they have incredible power to go, uh, find out what they want to find out and you know, subpoena potentially who they want a subpoena, or invite for hearings, who they want to invite and uh, you know, and that's why the President has been so outspoken in calling this presidential harassment and which hunt and so on and so forth, because the only real um thing limiting this, you know,
his exposure at this point is public sentiment that Democrats are going too far, and if you can create that sentiment, maybe that can place some some limits on what Democrats they're willing to do. But there's no sign that that
there at that point. At this point, well, yeah, how it plays out politically is a really interesting question, and the you know, multi billion trillion dollar question, because if there's a perception that a lot that comes out as quote unquote fake news, I mean, that's just it won't register with Trump supporters. Mike de Bonus of the Washington Post is online. I also understand that Ways and means
is um. You know, I don't mean this prejudicially, but they're trying to cook up a pretext for demanding the president's tax returns. Well, I did. What's going on is let's cooking up a pretext to sort of welighing down a foundation, uh for potential potato. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, within there there is there is a federal statute that's there's the chairman of the Ways and Music Committee. You can get any tax with or any want. Um. He can publicize it, but he can get in and
look at it. Oh my god, do you think it would leak. I mean, you know, I don't want to take these things lately, but you know, you know, you know my experience, you know, congressional investigators, you take you know, there these things seriously. Um. I I do think that, um. You know, obviously they want the tax returns, and they want to do it in a way that, um, you know, to the greatest extent possible, is rooted in a legitimate
oversight interest. And that's the position that the Democrats have taken. Now, the President isn't going to see it that way, no matter what. The President's offenders aren't going to see it that way. Um, And I think that they're but Democrats are being very careful to try and create the impression that this is of the legitimate oversight activity and not a political attack on on the president. Yeah, if you're ready about that. It's gonna come down to the politics
of it. I think, unless there's some great bombshells smoking guns somewhere, it's gonna be the politics whether you think this is appropriate. And the reason I brought up the probable cause aspect of it is how much probable cause do you need to have to think there's something fishy with Russia. So we're gonna look into every aspect of
your life and trying time Russia. Could we in a different political, more polarized time if Republicans that had had the power at the time, could they have said Barack Obama with that Muslim sounded name and he grew up over there and the speech in Cairo and his soft deal with Iran, we need to look into his background and tore into every aspect of his life because they believe there has to be there has to be some compromising thing with him in Muslims or Middle East or something.
Couldn't that happen? And I'm worried about us entering an era where every president is under endless investigation by the opposing party if they have the gavel. Sure, and I think you know, you're right to have that concern. I think that certainly if you asked Obama, he would feel that he would subject to some uh investigations. He didn't feel we're warranted or his administration anyway. I think him he personally was not um you know, but listen, worried.
This is a political This is a political system, man. I think anybody who tries to pretend that that politics are going to be kept out of it as kidding themselves. I mean, and you know that that's why, you know, the card rails on this process are essentially political. You have to feel like you are you are have it, have the support of the public, have the support of your own party, your leadership, your your electoral base when you start these things, and you have to feel like
you're gaining political advantage as you do it. And what if that is not the case, you know you'll you'll see Democrats abandoned these things. Uh, you know certainly, you know, Republicans fault they had political advantage when they were looking at you know, you had multiple different committees looking at the Benghazi situation. You had you know them working at the the I R. S UH targeting allegations. You know that that that's what drives these things. And you know
this is not a court of law. This is this is the you know, the House of Representatives. This is the you know, the the you know, the hothouse of democracy and people bond to there, you know, political right and and well said, I think it's safe to say the dusts from all of these the dust from mologies investigations, will be swirling around us for the next couple of years at least. Mike Demonus of the Washington Post covers Congress. Mike, we sure appreciate the time. Well done, good to talk
to you. Thanks. I just don't see how and if we have this political mood going on. The Barack Obama situation, that was a beautiful example. There was no birth certificate. Dad's from Kenya. It's just all pretty fishy, and you go down every road of his life looking for evidence of that. I want to see the college transcript, so I want to see the college application. What is he hiding? I want to see who paid every dollar that went to his education? And you come up with something for
every president. What's coming up your news, Marshall? Ellie Elizabeth Warre, an American Indian apology tour continues. The US Venezuela's standoff is ramping up and tracking the orbiting test roadster alright minutes from now. My kids ask me about that all the time. I'm glad that's coming up in the news. How's that car doing enough space? You are listening to
the arms Strong and Getty show. There are a lot of testing options out there, but no one has processed more COVID nineteen tests than Quest with over twenty million to date, and now you can get the same test hospitals used without a doctor visit. Simply order online, select from drive thru where at home options and get the results and securely to your phone or computer. It's experience and accuracy you can trust from Quest, the largest medical
testing lab in the country. So order your test today at Quest covid nineteen dot com