Eleanor Holmes Norton: "You Don't Have A Right To Know Everything" The Government Does

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) lectures her Congressional colleagues at a House Oversight Committee hearing over the decision of David Simas, Obama's director of political strategy, to ignore a subpoena. The hearing took place on Friday.





DEL. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: The president's immediate adviser is not an agency, and this is not a matter of policy. This is a fishing expedition, and yet the president has come to allow the committee to understand the fundamentals of the office. You want to understand why we've set up this office?



They have been over here time and again. But once you want to you call Mr. Simas, you are calling the chief adviser to the president himself. Yeah I agree, that there are circumstances where you don't need wrongdoing, but you need a predicate to or a subpoena. You need more than a fishing expedition. You don't have a right to know everything in a separation of powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation of powers government.