Appearing on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson over the weekend, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) spoke about the difficulties of his now-former job as chair of the House Oversight Committee.
In one of the more interesting parts of his interview with Attkisson, Chaffetz talked about how the Trump administration is “almost worse” than the Obama administration when it comes to being forthcoming:
ATTKISSON: “Some people might think this is a great time to be a Republican chairman of an important committee because Republicans control the House, they’re the majority in the Senate, and they hold the president’s office. That means, you would think, that federal agencies can’t stonewall investigations of spending, waste, fraud and abuse.”
CHAFFETZ: “The reality is, sadly, I don’t see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration. I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon. In many ways, it’s almost worse because we’re getting nothing, and that’s terribly frustrating and, with all due respect, the attorney general has not changed at all. I find him to be worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. I just, that’s my experience, and that’s not what I expected.”
When Attkisson asked why someone like IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, is still holding his position in spite of a Republican president and Republican-majority Congress, Chaffetz flatly stated:
“Now look, you have more than 50 Republicans pleading with President Trump to release him, um, to let him go, fire him. Uh, or at least encourage him to retire. No, he’s still there. No changes. Nobody was fired. Nobody was prosecuted. Nobody was held accountable. We tried to issue subpoenas, we tried to hold people in contempt and the Obama administration said no, and the Trump administration came in and did zero. Nothing. Nothing changed.”
You can watch the full interview here: