Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, has been carefully building his career since his 2002 election to Congress at age 29, focusing on national security and foreign affairs, not just the provincial concerns of his district. His selection as chairman of the House intelligence committee reflects his seriousness. But now Nunes may have dynamited his reputation by seemingly deciding to provide cover for President Trump’s wild and unproven allegation — first raised in a 6:35 a.m. ET tweet on March 4 — that President Obama had Trump’s “wires tapped” in Trump Tower “just before” his Nov. 8 election victory.

House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, speaks to reporters after a meeting at the White House March 22, 2017 in Washington. (Getty)

Anonymous American officials have reportedly said for months that routine surveillance of Russian officials turned up conversations with Trump’s allies and aides. These reports led FBI Director James Comey to confirm Monday that his agency was investigating to see if there was coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow. This surveillance is not remotely the same thing as the president ordering U.S. intelligence agencies to wiretap the home of a presidential nominee.


Yet on Wednesday, Nunes dramatically went to the media, then to the White House, then back to the media to share what Nunes called new information that Trump and his aides may have been recorded in “incidental collection” by U.S. agencies after Trump was elected but before he took office. These possibly recorded conversations, Nunes said, didn’t involve Russian agents or officials. Nunes shared this information with journalists and the president before talking to Democrats on the House intelligence committee — which is supposed to be mounting a bipartisan probe of alleged Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 election, including possible Russia-Trump collusion. On Thursday, Nunes reportedly apologized to Democrats on the panel he leads for not going to them first.

Nunes should apologize to America. What he says he has learned gives zero credence to Trump’s incendiary allegation. Yet Nunes gave cover to Trump to say Nunes’ findings make him feel “somewhat” vindicated and to Trump loyalists to engage in “told you so” taunting on social media. If the committee’s investigation isn’t compromised, its vestiges of neutrality are gone, and Nunes himself has now contributed to a culture of leaking he has so decried.

More broadly, Trump and his admirers need to grasp that the success of his presidency depends on him getting things done. They need to heed the points made this week by a stalwart of American conservatism: The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. The Journal wrote that Trump’s claim about Obama and press secretary Sean Spicer’s repeating of a Fox News rumor that the British may have spied on Trump for Obama show that Trump is “his own worst political enemy.” Why? Because if Trump wants to advance his agenda, the Journal wrote, “he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything,” and such support isn’t likely for a president with a “seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.”

Nunes’ enabling of such Trump behavior makes a fresh flood of falsehoods all but certain. Thanks for nothing, congressman.


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