The House Oversight Committee held a hearing about the controversial White House security clearances on Tuesday. Chairman Elijah Cummings commended White House whistleblower Tricia Newbold for defying her supervisor Carl Kline and keeping tabs on White House employees who were denied security clearances for a number of reasons, but then later overturned. For instance, she was concerned that Kline had approved President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner's top-secret clearance after it was rejected by two career White House security specialists. She could name 24 other people who were awarded clearances despite rejections.
Cummings interviewed Newbold on Saturday, March 23 and on Monday he shared a summary of her testimony.
"She's crying out," Cummings noted at Tuesday's hearing. "She's begging us to do something."
“Ms. Newbold came forward out of concern for our country and our national security. And she called on us to act. To do our jobs. To conduct credible, independent oversight.”
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) April 2, 2019
Cummings plans to hold a vote on whether to subpoena members of the White House on the security clearance matter. He sent a letter to the White House to mark his intentions. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), however, sees it as a "partisan attack on the White House."
He noted in a fiery response how the chairman scheduled a Saturday interview on week they weren't even in session with Newbold without telling the Republicans on the panel "until the day before." As for the press release Cummings sent on Monday, Jordan added, it was "cherry picked" to try and slander the White House.
In his ten years on the Oversight committee, Jordan said he'd "never seen anything like this."
Rep. Jordan goes after Cummings, accusing him of blasting out a press release after interviewing one witness. "I’ve never seen anything like this," Jordan says.
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) April 2, 2019
"Oh please," Cummings shoots back. "Yeah, you’ve done it."
Democrats laughed at Jordan's declaration. But he proceeded, wondering why the committee has subpoenaed someone "who already offered to show up voluntarily."
Cummings doubled down on the supposed necessity of the subpoenas because the Trump administration is "stonewalling."