Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus regret these tweets now that Donald Trump is giving Russia classified info
Now that Donald Trump has been caught giving highly classified information to two members of the Russian government, Republican leaders seem unsure of how to respond. Two of them in particular probably have no idea what to say, because they already staked themselves to harsh condemnation of sharing classified intel back when they were pretending that Hillary Clinton had done so. Check out these old tweets from Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus:
First we’ve got Oops #1 from Reince Priebus, who was chairman of the Republican National Committee at the time, and is now Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff. Back in July, he tweeted that “Those who mishandled classified info have had their sec clearances revoked, lost their jobs, faced fines, & even been sent to prison.” We bet Reince would like to have this one back:
Those who mishandled classified info have had their sec clearances revoked, lost their jobs, faced fines, & even been sent to prison
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) July 7, 2016
And then there’s Oops #2 from Paul Ryan, then and now the Speaker of the House. He tweeted in July that “It’s simple: Individuals who are ‘extremely careless’ w/ classified info should be denied further access to it.” We’re pretty sure Ryan would like to have a do-over on this one:
It's simple: Individuals who are ‘extremely careless’ w/ classified info should be denied further access to it. https://t.co/XWuvfDugly
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 7, 2016
So by their own previously stated standards, Reince Priebus should be resigning from the White House in protest of Donald Trump’s decision to give classified intel to the enemy, and Paul Ryan should be introducing Articles of Impeachment against Trump on the House floor as we speak. But neither of those things are happening, because, you know, it was never about Hillary’s emails to begin with.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report