Does Devin Nunes deserve the Medal of Freedom given by President Trump? Facts say no

To Devin Nunes’ GOP supporters, his being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump is a crowning achievement for the Tulare congressman who steadfastly defended Trump during impeachment hearings and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

But facts show that far from being a hero, as Trump portrays him, Nunes has actually harmed the nation by fueling the bitter partisan divide that has splintered America’s political system.

Since 2003 Nunes has represented a key part of the central San Joaquin Valley in Congress. His 22nd District today covers much of Tulare County and the eastern part of Fresno County, including Clovis and the northeast side of Fresno.

The Washington Post broke the news Sunday that Trump was to present Nunes with the honor. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, created by President John F. Kennedy, is the nation’s highest award given to civilians. It recognizes “exceptional contributions” to national security, world peace, or cultural endeavors.

Presidents have awarded the medal to artists, athletes, politicians and military leaders. Past recipients include actor Tom Hanks, poet Maya Angelou, author Harper Lee, and boxer Muhammad Ali.

Trump is basing the award to Nunes on how the congressman defended the president while he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

“What he’s gone through, and his bravery, he should get a very important medal,” Trump said on a “Fox & Friends” episode in October 2018.

Undeserving of medal

Actually, one only has to look at Nunes’ time as chair of the Intelligence Committee to see why he is undeserving of an “important medal.”

In 2018, Nunes and the panel’s Republican staff wrote a memo that claimed the FBI had concealed the political nature of a dossier the agency referenced for a warrant to conduct surveillance of a Trump campaign aide. The implication was that the FBI and “Deep State” actors were working in a conspiracy to hurt the president.

In fact, the FBI did disclose the political nature of the dossier to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court.

Amy Zegart, a senior national security fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution — a conservative-oriented think tank — wrote about the Nunes memo in The Atlantic and concluded this:

“The chairman, finally, with no small help from the president, has weaponized secrets to a degree unprecedented in American history, putting narrow political interests over national interests.”

Zegart said Nunes conducted “fake oversight” while committee chairman, and abused his authority by deceiving and confusing Americans, rather than informing them; refusing to allow dissent by others, i.e., Democrats; and “weaponizing” secrets by selectively declassifying information “to advance personal interest rather than national interest.”

“When it came out that the FBI had told the court about the political origins of the dossier, Nunes admitted that, well, he had never actually read the FBI FISA court materials the memo purports to summarize,” Zegart said. “In other words, the committee chairman drew some damning conclusions about the nation’s chief law-enforcement agency without ever reviewing the facts. Which suggests he didn’t care much about the facts in the first place.”

Empty lawsuits

Closer to home, Nunes sued a constituent who had dared to challenge the congressman’s use of the word “farmer” in the 2018 ballot designation. Nunes later dropped the suit. (In 2006 he sold his Tulare County farmland, and his family later moved its dairy to Iowa.)

Nunes has also sued The Post, CNN and Twitter on defamation claims, only to have them tossed out of court.

He sued The Bee over a 2018 story that he alleged defamed him, but gave up the lawsuit last year when the paper’s parent company came under bankruptcy protection.

When the COVID-19 pandemic was starting out and social gathering was being discouraged as a means to slow the spread, Nunes went on Fox News and said people needed to continue to eat out to help the economy.

Then there is the nonstop demonizing Nunes engages in when talking about Democrats. He once referred to them as communists; the moniker of choice lately has been socialists. Meant as slurs, neither is accurate nor respectful of politicians who are fellow Americans.

The list of reasons Nunes should not be given the medal could go on. Suffice to say, Nunes has proven to Trump that he is worthy of one award:

The Presidential Medal of Fealty.