Poor Jason Chaffetz suddenly discovers his hands are tied
by digby
If there’s ever been a more unctuous, sanctimonious, self-serving piece of work than Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, I’ve never seen him. After all of his rending of garments over Hillary Clinton’s supposed corruption, including his nasty promise at the inauguration to keep investigating her, he’s decided that nothing Trump does can be called corrupt so it’s off the table.
His constituents aren’t happy about it:
Chaffetz has come under fire for taking few actions against either Donald Trump’s international business empire and the potential conflicts-of-interest it creates, or pushing Trump to release his tax returns. As the chair of the committee tasked with investigating “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal government, Chaffetz is perhaps the government official with the most power to check Trump’s unprecedented potential to leverage the White House for private gain.
But so far, Chaffetz has issued no subpoenas, called for no hearings, and scheduled no meetings to investigate Trump’s either potential abuse of the office. (He has asked the General Services Administration for documents related to Trump’s hotel in DC, and on Thursday called Kellyanne Conway “wrong, wrong, wrong” for publicly endorsing Ivanka Trump’s label.) Critics have pointed out that Chaffetz was relentless in his investigation of the executive branch during President Obama’s administration, particularly over Hillary Clinton’s role in the Benghazi scandal.
It looks like the more than 1,000 people who showed up at the Brighton High School Thursday night want him to do more. Videos show attendees demanding Chaffetz explain his “line in the sand” for Trump and loudly booing Chaffetz for saying he doesn’t believe Trump should release his tax returns:
Again, #Chaffetz says he wants Trump to release his tax returns, “but it is not required by law.” Reaction: pic.twitter.com/KF6rX8Ei3J— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) February 10, 2017
One assumes that Chaffetz would find a way to investigate if the subject were Hillary Clinton.
At rowdy town hall, ex-teacher asks Chaffetz — chair of House oversight — “what’s your line in the sand” for Trump? pic.twitter.com/8U7IkpZtsS— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) February 10, 2017
Chaffetz: “My line in the sand is the law… Some of the accusations don’t step over the line of the law.” pic.twitter.com/Njtr2IRPXv— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) February 10, 2017
Read more about it here. His constituents are fired up.
And he’s still an oily creep:
“I’ll remind people that I never did a quote-unquote ‘investigation’ of Barack Obama when he was president,” Chaffetz told me. “I am personally not diving into the individual roles of the family members. I haven’t done that with President Obama, and I have not done that with Donald Trump.”
Right. Sasha and Malia attending meetings with foreign dignitaries whose governments were in the midst of making deals for their lemonade stand brand. This is fatuous bullshit even for him. Particularly since he stated in advance of the possible Clinton administration that she presented a “target rich environment” and he planned to dog her day in and day out over emails and assorted nonsensical corruption charges.
He is the worst, the bottom of the barrel. But when you see the footage of him at that meeting you can see he’s actually enjoying the attention even though it’s hostile. That’s all he cares about.
Chaffetz 2024? You betcha.
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