Congressman Denny Heck Was in Lakewood Tonight

U.S Congressman Denny Heck came to The McGavick Center at Clover Park Vocational-Technical College tonight to give an overview of the ongoing Senate investigation into the Trump-Russia connection. The more I see of Denny Heck up close and personal, the better I like him. Talk about “fair and balanced” (a misnomer at Fox, an adequate appraisal as far as Congressman Heck)!  He is no hyper-partisan hack. He’s a statesman.

 

Congressman Heck said right up front that he probably wouldn’t make anyone very happy tonight. (That turned out to be a failed prophecy. I was delighted.) He said this because he knows how divisive this issue is for people on all sides of the political spectrum.

 

But then he explained everything, as he sees it (as one of the people in the trenches of political office and on the Senate Select Committee on the Trump-Russia investigation), and I think most people came away convinced that our representative in Washington D.C. is a keeper.

 

Heck laid out what’s happening in the Intelligence Committee without divulging any of the information he has that is as yet confidential. He explained that ideally, he wanted and sought an independent investigation of the Russian influences in the recent election but that it wasn’t possible, so they’re doing what they can with the cards dealt to them.

 

He reiterated that the investigations (FBI, Senate and House) are all bipartisan efforts, chaired, outlined (Scope of Investigation) and voted on by everyone on the various committees. He suggests that interested citizens watch C-SPAN3 to see the parts of the investigations that can be transmitted publicly without compromising the safety and confidentiality of their sources.

 

He said the FBI has been investigating Russian influence in the elections since July 2016. He confirmed that Nunes recused himself but that he’s still on the Intelligence Committee and that he has been advised that he is under investigation now for having conferred with Trump during the ongoing investigation, which was highly unusual and created an apparent conflict of interest.

 

Congressman Heck’s mission, in his mind, is to follow the facts wherever they lead. And what he has heard to date leads him to believe that there will be prosecutions of at least some of the key players, some of whom have left the administration, others of whom are still there (naming no names). 

 

He stressed that this is not an investigation to re-litigate the outcome of the election.

 

The committee has found no smoking gun as to whether actual polling places or polling machines had been infiltrated and changed to affect the outcome (he doesn’t believe they were compromised), and since then, additional security measures have been put into place to make foreign manipulation of polling places even more secure, since the investigation has found definitively that Russia is actively engaged (even now) with manipulating the outcomes of democratic elections in the US and Europe (specifically France and Germany) via skillfully-planted disinformation and other forms of citizen manipulation.

 

In response to audience questions, Congressman Heck said that the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has agreed, in a bipartisan manner, on the scope of the investigation (as mentioned above): getting to the truth as to whether Trump associates colluded/collaborated with Russia during the election; on a preliminary witnesses list, and on other crucial matters. (He did confess that it can be difficult to get the other party on the same page and agreeing to things that help ensure a reliable outcome, so it’s slow going, but progress is being made. He says “Don’t expect results any time soon. Thorough, painstaking investigations don’t happen in weeks or months.” No rushes to judgment here. He reminded us (those of us old enough to remember), “Watergate took two years, remember.”

 

He asked a Russian expert from The Evergreen State College to appear tonight, a history teacher and gentleman who has visited Russia 23 times and is an expert on Soviet plans and policies, and invited him to reiterate his belief that Putin is looking to recreate the kind of empire (geographical and, these days, with cyber-based disinformation influence) that the USSR boasted of back in the days of the Cold War. He said that Russia is succeeding, so far, without equal push-back.

 

Heck mentioned that Putin used to be the head of the Russian counterpart of the CIA, so he has an almost unmatched cybernetics team with credentials and abilities; we’re playing catch-up to all that. Heck says it is his view that “The new dichotomy is not Capitalism versus Communism, as in the days of my youth, but Democracy versus Autocracy”.

 

He mentioned that RT is  wholly-owned and operated by Russian power players and that Wikileaks was, and is, a Russian tool of disinformation. He also said that his barber, who has been cutting his hair for some 30 years, is an avid RT enthusiast, which he finds troubling.

 

Of the committee members on his Intelligence team, he has the greatest respect for Trey Gowdy, whom he considers fair, possessing great integrity, and a true statesman.

 

On other topics, he said he has not yet signed on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All bill because several of the provisions in it do not protect the patients who are in several different types facilities  and for two other reasons (sorry, I don’t recall what they are and didn’t write them down; he says many health care providers agree with him that the current bill isn’t robust enough to fulfill its vision: providing decent, affordable health care for all). He said for now he’s on a mission to protect Obamacare–the only practical, sensitive option that’s presently on the table–because if it goes away without something better to replace it, patients will be in an even worse position than they were before it was passed, with millions of people losing their coverage and having nowhere (affordable) to turn.

 

Asked about his stance on education (Betty DeVos, vouchers, charter schools, etc.) he mentioned that, as a kid whose father was a huge proponent of higher education, one of the things that was drummed into him all his life was, ‘the only thing that no one else can take away from you is your education’.  He supports efforts to keep elementary, junior high and high schools free and public and to make higher education affordable to all. He attended The Evergreen State College.

 

Congressman Heck was with us for over 90 minutes before he admitted to “running out of steam”. There were two places in the auditorium where people could pose questions, and those among us whom he called “shy” also had the option of writing questions on cards which his staff would pick up and bring to him to read and answer. I believe he got to all of the questions on the cards during the course of the Q & A. I didn’t get any sense of him or his team deciding which questions would be carried to him.  That was refreshing, after the last Town Hall meeting I attended, where questions were definitely screened. (All of the reps at that event were Republicans: Hans Zieger, Joyce McDonald and Melanie Stambaugh.)

 

One of the takeaways from the event that I received was the sense that Denny Heck is a deeply patriotic, decent, measured, and well-balanced individual. He does have a deep and abiding faith in democracy and in the American people.

 

He asked us all to stay engaged, to not lose hope or fall into despair. He reminded us that America has faced many trials in its long history, and he feels certain we can weather this one, too, as long as the American people stay engaged.

 

I almost cried at one point when he was talking about having to go through two bank-security type vaults just to get into the room where the briefings were going on. All recording and electronic devices must be left outside this secured inner sanctum.

 

He said the first time he went through the process, sat down at the desk, and opened his briefing file, with the words TOP SECRET printed in red letters across the top, he took a big, deep breath and thought, “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

 

Then he said, “One of the things I’ve learned–which keeps me up at night and as at the top of my game as I’m capable of–is that there are a lot of people whose sole purpose every morning when they out of bed is destroying America. And there are a lot of people whose sole goal every morning when they get up is to save and protect America.” He’s worried about the former and thankful for the latter.

 

He mentioned being very concerned about North Korea and about Trump’s erratic thought processes and interactions with allies and adversaries alike, noting that he contradicts himself on important issues of the day so frequently that (my words, now!) it can make your head spin.

 

As I was leaving tonight, I walked out with another woman who said she was from Dave Reichert’s district.  I thanked her for driving down. She said, “Dave Reichert won’t meet with us–he avoids us like the plague–so I have to drive down here to get direct information from one of the few representatives who’s actually brave enough to meet with his constituents–Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Berniecrats alike–and tell them truths they may not like. That’s integrity–standing by your views and facts even when you know some people you’re talking to don’t share or believe them.”

That’s a spot-on description of Denny Heck, in my opinion.