B Issa News Today

After the benghazi investigation was taken, he sounds like the sour grapes chairman. >> yes. yes, and when you look through the series of letters back and forth, starting in march of this year between chairman issa and the white house to chief of staff dennisis mcdonough, then council katherine rummler and her successor, counsel eggleston. hes asking for things where theres no real -- no allegation whatsoever of any wrongdoing, and the white house keeps coming back and asking for -- heres what w...

He didnt want the public to hear that. i think thats so sad because it goes against the credibility of our committee. and it goes against the things that we stand for. and i think its just very unfortunate. >> jonathan, we have watched chairman issa seemingly just go after this president, go after attorney general holder. i mean, this looks blatantly political to many of us. >> yes, it does, because so far a lot of chairman issas investigations have come up empty. and when i wrote about this yes...

This segment, the white house team went up to the hill, was there for 75 minutes, answered every question that was posed to them until the committee, the folks who were there, exhausted all of their questions, 45 in all. >> and issa didnt show. >> and issa was not there. >> congressman, with so much of the public viewing the congress in a very negative light and really as dysfunctional, does this kind of behavior beyond the politics, beyond your party and chairman issas party, does this continue...

Stop serving as a center stage for political theater and for fulfilling responsibilities under the constitution to conduct responsible oversight. >> house republicans have spent too much time talking about scandals and lawsuits and impeachment. its time someone told them to get serious. and telling darrell issa to knock it off is a good start. joining me now, congressman elijah cummings, the top democrat of the house oversight committee, and jonathan cape, part of the washington post. thank you ...

>> we do not simply haul in one of the presidents top advisers at will. there must be a valid reason. there must be a predicate. there must be a justification. some evidence that this official engaged in some type of inappropriate activity. that foundation simply does not exist. >> congress cant just spina someone for no reason. and congressman issa didnt give any proof of wrongdoing before he speubpoenaed david seamus, b issa said that was no problem. >> we do not and should not need a smoking ...

For chairman issa something that she said, something that the chairman said in 2011. when he said he would seek the committees council, their guidance, on when to issue subpoenas and that he would talk to members on his side of the aisle, but also members on the other side of the aisle to see if whether he was, quote, nuts or, quote, am i wrong in seeking out a subpoena. and it was after ranking member cummings prepared his testimony plus showing him that video, but before the office of special ...

Facts to you that raises one to believe what youre suggesting. because you know this is all about politics when the white house said its political director wouldnt testify, but they sent staffers to brief the oversight committee on his work. a democratic source told role call, quote, guess who didnt even bother to show up? one guess. correct, no issa. the source said staff briefed issas staff for an hour and 15 minutes, and answered every question, 45 in all, until they stopped. so congressman, ...

No problem. from benghazi to the irs, to fast and furious, forget the facts. all congressman issa cares about is trying to make a scandal about this president, and hes tried over and over again. in his three years as chairman of the oversight committee, issas issued 99 subpoenas. thats more than the last three chairs of the same committee combined. today, congressman cummings said, its time to get back to business. >> members of this committee and i say it and ill say it until i die, the members...

And the white house had done everything in its power to work with chairman issa to provide him with any information that he wanted. but he wasnt really after trying to answer the questions that he claimed it was all about. it was supposed to be about the hatch act. and whether there was any violations of that act with regard to the white houses committee on its operations, political operations and strategy. well, and by the way, reverend, we had the special council on the panel who oversee the h...

There has not been one single vote on these 99 sepenas. in many instances, he issues the subpoenas and we find out about them in the newspaper. >> wow. how do you explain that, congressman? >> i think that unfortunately, chairman issa has made a decision that he wants more attention. when this benghazi issue was taken away from our committee, we suddenly saw a huge spike in the number of subpoenas going out. and i think its sad because it just undermines everything that were trying to do. as i t...