8/19/18
It’s arguable whether Devin Nunes is really representing California’s 22nd Congressional District. True, he has been reelected seven times since 2002, when he first won in what was then the 21st District. But these days Nunes appears focused on parlaying his role as President Trump’s most ardent lapdog into national media stardom, even when doing so conflicts with the 22nd’s interests. And the district is noticing. As chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes is often interviewed by right-wing Fox News broadcasters such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. But local political observers including Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski say he hasn’t held a local town hall for years. The district, which encompasses parts of Fresno and Tulare counties, is predominantly agricultural, but Nunes hasn’t taken a position on two of agriculture’s most pressing issues, trade and immigration, apparently because district sentiment — pro-free trade and pro-immigration — runs counter to Trump’s policies. And even though Fresno, the biggest city in the district, last month experienced a record 22 consecutive days with highs of more than 100 degrees, Nunes invokes the Trumpian hallucination that climate change isn’t real. When he arrived in Washington as a freshman congressman in 2003, Nunes was what Warszawski called “a salt-of-the-earth dairy farmer from Pixley who would represent our interests without sinking into the Washington cesspool.” That was before Nunes learned how to swim in it — at about the same time the Trump era began.
Thrust into prominence by the Intelligence Committee’s role in investigating the Trump campaign’s Russia connections, Nunes has delighted the president’s supporters by turning congressional norms upside down: Instead of conducting a genuine probe of the campaign, he has tried to investigate the investigators, endeavoring to use his committee’s powers to show that intelligence officials perpetrated a hoax to discredit the 2016 election. Nunes is no investigator, but he plays one on TV. In March 2017, he dramatically announced that intelligence sources had given him documents proving that government agencies had conducted surveillance of the Trump campaign, and he personally debriefed Trump on their contents. Then the New York Times identified two White House staffers as Nunes’ sources, exposing the episode as a political stunt and Nunes as the stooge who brought about the spectacle of the White House briefing itself. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Nunes was running “an Inspector Clouseau investigation.” Nunes follows the Trump playbook: Lie. If caught, double down. Throw accusations back at the source. Proclaim “fake news.” Even among some reliably Republican voters — farmers — there may be signs of ambivalence. Last month, two agricultural industry leaders, the presidents of Western Growers and the California Farm Bureau Federation, published an op-ed in the Bee that praised three San Joaquin Valley Republican congressmen for addressing the valley’s farm labor shortage by fighting for pro-immigration legislation. They pointedly omitted Nunes. But Nunes’ mind isn’t on farm labor right now.