Acrescendo of lawmakers can be an effective tool in moving issues forward in Washington, but it takes the initiative of at least one person to begin the process.
Such was the case when Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, the Senate Minority Whip, called for an investigation by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees the morning after Michael Flynn resigned his post as national security advisor amid growing concerns over the nature of his talks with Russian officials during the interregnum.
Gen. Flynn resigned Monday evening, just a month into his new job in the Trump Administration, amid reports that he discussed U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia with a Kremlin official before Donald Trump became president.
Cornyn told reporters that the Senate standing committees with oversight of intelligence need to investigate Flynn and he urged them to do so. He then added: “I think there’s an orderly process to make sure we get accurate information and we can the appropriate oversight and that’s what we ought to do.”
As the newest member of the intelligence panel, the timing of his statement seems to have opened the floodgate for others to follow in calling for formal investigations into the matter.
Sen. Roy Blunt, another Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, took to the airwaves, telling KTRS radio: “We should talk to General Flynn very soon, and that should answer a lot of questions. … What did he know? What did he do? And is there any reason to believe that anybody knew that and didn’t take the kind of action they should have taken?”
By Tuesday afternoon, several other Republicans — including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, of Tennessee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — also joined the growing chorus, calling for more information. (As did dozens of Democrats in the House and Senate.) Conducting investigations is one of Congress’ main functions, but this incident represents the first major test in the Trump era of whether Republicans are willing to call out their own.
We congratulate Sen. Cornyn for recognizing early on the need for hearings on this issue and the need to hold accountable all who are in office, regardless of party affiliation. This is the function of our country’s system of checks-and-balances.
Laying the groundwork for legitimate fact-finding by these various congressional committees is necessary, especially in today’s 24-hour news cycle when rumors, rhetoric and innuendo can spread in seconds via social media.
As Blunt said: “Everybody needs that investigation to happen. … I think that we should look into it exhaustively so that at the end of this process, nobody wonders whether there was a stone left unturned, and shouldn’t reach conclusions before you have the information that you need to have to make those conclusions.”
We agree and look forward to formal hearings being scheduled in the upcoming days.
