Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
President Trump named retiring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to head the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, “setting up what could be a contentious confirmation battle in the Senate,” Politico reports.
“As former House Oversight Committee chairman, the nine-term congressman built a name for himself by dogging the Obama Administration for years… That’s left him virtually friendless on the left, which could be problematic for his confirmation in a chamber with a very slim GOP majority.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is among the candidates who have been discussed as President Trump gets closer to naming someone to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Bloomberg reports.
“Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was a groomsman in Rep. Mike Turner’s (R-OH) wedding to Majida Mourad in Dec. 2015. Now Turner is locked in a contentious divorce with Mourad — and he wants Issa deposed by his attorneys,” Politico reports.
“It’s unclear why Turner would seek Issa’s testimony. But Mourad’s attorney, Sanford Ain, said in a statement Monday that Turner ‘may have’ told ‘third parties’ that she was unfaithful, ‘thinking it would advantage him in the divorce.’ But any claim of infidelity by Mourad ‘has no basis in fact,’ Ain said.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who said he is not seeking reelection in California’s 49th district, has been discussing with colleagues the possibility of running in a neighboring San Diego district if embattled Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA resigns, The Hill reports.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) “shot down President Trump’s claim that the probe into his administration’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt — and threw his support behind the special counsel in charge of the investigation,” the New York Post reports.
Said Issa: “I don’t personally believe in witches.”
He also warned the White House: “All special prosecutors turn over a lot more rocks than anybody else in the executive branch wants. He’s going to find things beyond the scope that the narrowest interpretation of either Republicans or Democrats would want.”
This is a priceless detail from a Politico on the firestorm engulfing the White House:
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), when asked about the news by a Politico reporter, looked her in the eye, gave her the middle finger and walked away.
Like all House members, he is up for reelection in November 2018.
“More than 1,000 people showed up at two town halls on Saturday to hear Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) explain his stances on a variety of hot-button issues,” the Orange County Register reports.
“Issa addressed concerns regarding the repeal of Obamacare, calls to defund Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency, and ties between members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet and Russia. No answer came without a smattering of jeers.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) called for a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into Trump associates’ contacts with Russia, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
Said Issa: “You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine Jeff Sessions, who was on the campaign and who is an appointee. You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office to take — not just to recuse. You can’t just give it to your deputy. That’s another political appointee.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is apparently celebrating his narrow victory over challenger Doug Applegate (D) by suing him for libel, “claiming that two political ads have damaged his reputation,” the San Diego Union reports.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Brietbart News Daily that now might be a good time for the Republican leadership to shut down the federal government, in protest of what he called “an imperial president” who will not “enforce criminal charges against a criminal.”
Issa was referring to the lack of charges filed against Hillary Clinton for her private email server.
Said Issa: “We should be willing to shut down the government if the president won’t limit his power.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the Washington Examiner that the FBI has enough evidence right now to indict Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin, but that FBI director James Comey is being constrained.
Said Issa: “I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak. I think he’s in a position where he’s being forced to triple-time make a case what would otherwise be, what they call, a slam dunk.”
Former House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) tried to crash former Hillary Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s deposition before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, The Hill reports.
“Issa marched into the closed-door deposition and remained inside for about a minute before he was escorted out by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). The pair briefly exchanged hushed words in a nearby hallway before Issa stormed off, throwing an empty soda can into a nearby trash bin.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the richest man in Congress, told CNN that America has made “our poor somewhat the envy of the world.”
Said Issa: “If you go to India or you go to any number of other Third World countries, you have two problems: You have greater inequality of income and wealth. You also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have not to the have.”
One of Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) first acts since taking over the House Oversight gavel: Removing portraits of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other past chairmen from the walls of the Oversight hearing room, The Hill reports.
“A Chaffetz spokeswoman said it’s much ado about nothing. But Issa allies see the move as a slap in the face to the last chairman, who tapped Chaffetz in 2011 as chairman of the Oversight subcommittee on national security. Issa’s likeness, they note, had only been hanging in Rayburn 2154 for two months.”
“When an administration says ‘no,’ it’s no different than when Andrew Jackson marched Indians down the Trail of Tears, to their death.”
— Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), quoted by Politico, on the Obama administration’s transparency.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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