During the Obama administration and after Secretary Hillary Clinton had resigned -- when Republicans saw the opportunity to target her and begin to plant the seeds of doubt on her potential aspirations for the presidency -- Republicans attached themselves to whatever details they could exploit to blame her for role in a terrorist attack on an American Embassy in Benghazi. Their narrative was even more serious within the context that American diplomats had been killed there and then came the reports that she was running an email server from her home, which likely had more details of her involvement.
GOP using Susan Rice for leverage
Republicans held hearing after hearing, which many began complaining about as being an exhaustive use of tax payer's money. When then FBI Director James Comey had determined that there was no reason to indict Clinton last year, it provided Republicans with more ammunition to cry foul. Now that Clinton lost the presidency to Donald Trump, the attacks on the former secretary have slowed if not stopped altogether, perhaps dormant should she attempt to make another run for any political office.
Susan Rice denies Trump associates were "unmasked" for politically motivated spying https://t.co/CLpyTM87oU pic.twitter.com/h2VLrASeuP
— Bloomberg (@business) April 4, 2017
Now with the weight of investigations coming down on the Trump administration, Republicans have found another scapegoat for their own investigations against the President's opposition, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
In April, Bloomberg View reported that Susan Rice made a request to "unmask" the name of one Trump team transition member which for Republicans, shows that the administration intended to target the Trump transition team for political reasons.
A fractured intelligence committee
The GOP has seized on the article and forced Rice to deny that there was any manipulation of intelligence by the Obama White House.
As a Blasting News article which reported on the subpoena's issued by the House Intelligence Committee said, there are other factors at play that the GOP is looking to use in order to possibly drag out the investigation on Trump that is conducted by various intelligence agencies and officials, in order to provide the Trump administration with some cover.
As the article states, there are other factors that would help build momentum when the GOP doesn't have the argument of "unmasking" to use where leaks are also seen as the problem they want to target. The House Intelligence Committee has already shown itself to be capable of unconventional attempts to draw attention to itself. Credit for this goes to the House Intel Chair Devin Nunes who took it upon himself to reveal "intelligence" documents that came from the Trump administration. Documents that attempted to redirect support for their own claims that for political reasons, the Trump transition team had been wiretapped by the former Obama administration. The attempt to build up more drama at this point is certainly not below the committee's standards.
