Jason Zengerle publicly announced his profile of Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., in today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine with the snarky tweet, “My latest for the @NYTmag on Devin Nunes, who’s been propagating, not to mention falling for, conspiracy theories since before the Deep State was even in a gleam in Donald Trump’s eye.”
It’s an accurate summation of the hit he attempted to place on Nunes, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The only problem is the case he attempts to make is riddled with errors and full of embarrassing and deliberate material omissions.
For example, Zengerle writes that a “suspicious” Nunes was wrong to believe that “Obama administration officials were ignoring evidence in a cache of documents collected from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showing that Al Qaeda was much stronger than the administration publicly contended.” Zengerle says Nunes’ predecessor as chairman of the intel committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, agreed with Obama officials’ assessment and told Nunes the documents Defense Intelligence Agency officials were analyzing at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., showed nothing significant on that score.
“But Nunes wasn’t convinced. On a Saturday in May 2013, he flew from Washington to Tampa and paid a visit to Centcom headquarters himself, where he demanded to meet with the analysts reviewing the documents, in the hope of uncovering evidence of Al Qaeda’s strength—and an Obama administration cover-up,” Zengerle writes. “But after a meeting with the Army major general who headed Centcom’s intelligence wing, Nunes came back to Washington empty-handed.”
The New York Times’ Hatchet Job On Devin Nunes Is Riddled With Errors
According to a top polling forecaster Larry Sabato, House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes is no longer in a "safe" seat for re-election. He might just lose his seat to a Democrat named Andrew Janz.
According to The Hill:
Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics moved Nunes's seat to "likely Republican" as his Democratic challenger, Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Janz, continues to have fundraising success.
Nunes, a staunch defender of President Trump, is still considered a favorite in the race, but the Crystal Ball notes that he will likely face a stronger challenge than expected[.]
Now, anything could happen, I suppose, and Sabato was right in forecasting Donald Trump's victory. But with the press drumbeat about the supposed "great blue wave" next November, I am suspicious that this might just be psychological warfare to boost Nunes's opponent.Nunes, a staunch defender of President Trump, is still considered a favorite in the race, but the Crystal Ball notes that he will likely face a stronger challenge than expected[.]
Take a gander at the Democrat supposedly in line to oust Devin Nunes