Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com
Apparently, House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) feels no accountability to his constituents. Not only does he refuse to hold a town hall, the very idea of doing so is ridiculous to him.
When a reporter for his hometown paper, The Fresno Bee, asked him if he planned to hold any open forums for people in his district, Nunes not only said no, he furiously attacked the paper.
“Your paper is a joke to even bring these issues up or raise these issues,” said Nunes. “I actually feel bad for the people who work at The Bee, because sadly it’s become just a left-wing rag … when the paper becomes just part of regurgitating Democratic talking points, it’s no longer a news outlet that’s actually being fair or objective. It’s not objective journalism.”
He added that “for many many years I’ve held a lot of educational forums over the years. Big forums, small forums.”
Nunes may have been stung by the Bee’s recent article calling him “Trump’s stooge” following his underhanded attempts to sabotage the Russia investigation. But the fact is, “educational forums aside,” Nunes has not held a single real, publicly open town hall since 2010.
Democratic challenger Andrew Janz, a Fresno County prosecutor, was quick to leap on Nunes’ comments.
“You heard it hear 1st – no townhalls this year from our Congressman. He also thinks the @FresnoBee is a joke for even asking.” tweeted Janz. “You can catch my 1st town hall on March 3rd it’s free & open to all!”
California’s 22th Congressional District is a heavily Republican region in the heart of the Central Valley, and Nunes has not faced a truly competitive election in years. But after releasing a debunked anti-FBI conspiracy theory “memo” based on intelligence he hadn’t even read, Nunes is actually at risk.
It is time for Nunes to remember that he works for the people in his district, because he appears to have forgotten.
