Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thrown his support behind investigating Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser to former Democratic President Barack Obama. Rice has found herself in the middle of controversy after allegations that she sought to unmask members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.
Eli Lake of Bloomberg initially reported the news regarding Rice. The information was allegedly found when the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick was conducting a review of government policy on unmasking. It was then a trend was found of requests to unmask officials on or related to President Trump’s transition team.
“I have asked the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, Sen. [Richard] Burr, Sen. [Mark] Warner, to conduct a bipartisan investigation of this whole episode,” McConnell told Fox News anchor Dana Perino in an interview. “They will conduct it. Hopefully at the end we will find out what happened and they will issue a report, I hope, on a bipartisan basis.”
A bipartisan investigation at this point may provide more answers into the ongoing saga surrounding the alleged connections between President Donald Trump and the Russian government. From Michael Flynn’s private communications being leaked to the media and intelligence finding its way to the public through back channels, there has been a steady chain of bizarre events.
While whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden arguably perform a public service and transparency is needed, the question is whether these leaks occurred for the greater good or for partisan politics.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican colleague of McConnell, has already called for Rice to come before Congress and testify to the allegations. His belief is that if there is an issue, it should be addressed under oath. If there was no wrongdoing, this point will be cleared and the investigation can move forward. But if there was wrongdoing, this can then at that point be addressed.
