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Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has come under fire from Democrats for his refusal to investigate Michael Flynn and the White House over illicit contacts with Russia during the presidential campaign.

Former Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin has also called him out for “shirking his duty.” Now that chorus has been joined by the Salt Lake City Tribune editorial staff.

In an editorial, the paper called on Chaffetz to “investigate, not emulate, the president” because of false claims Chaffetz made about “ringers” in his town hall audience, all too eerily similar to Trump’s cries of voter fraud for the editors:

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“Chaffetz should realize soon, if he hasn’t already, that the president hasn’t just plowed this ground, he has already salted the fields for anyone who may come after. This crew — dubbed the Prevarication Administration by Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan — has helped to cure the national media of any hesitation it may have had and to start calling out untruths told by high government officials.”

According to the Tribune’s editors, Chaffetz did well to “show a little political backbone” by his call for the White House to provide information about Trump’s disastrous Mar-a-Lago security breach, but he should follow it up with an investigation of Michael Flynn’s misdoings:



“Opening this line of questioning could be a first step toward some real congressional oversight of the administration. It could help Chaffetz walk back his foolish statement about how the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn was enough to solve some serious questions about what contacts Flynn may have had with Russian officials before the administration took office and, more importantly, what the president knew and when he knew it.”

As the editors conclude, “For his own good, and for ours, Chaffetz should be investigating them, not trying to copy them.”