Democrats on Friday immediately slammed President Donald Trump's decision to send the party's response to the Republican memo alleging FBI surveillance abuses back for revisions, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying Trump's "double standard when it comes to transparency is appalling."
"The rationale for releasing the Nunes memo, transparency, vanishes when it could show information that's harmful to him," the six-term New Yorker said in a statement, referring to Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of California.
"Millions of Americans are asking one simple question: what is he hiding?" Schumer said.
He also posted on Twitter:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also of California, took to Twitter, saying Trump's "hypocrisy is on full display."
The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, oversaw the party's response to the Nunes memo.
He posted that Trump was returning their memo "to the same majority that produced the flawed Nunes memo to begin with."
In sending the memo back to Nunes, White House counsel Don McGahn outlined the president's concerns in a letter accompanying the document.
"Although the president is inclined to declassify the Feb. 5 memo, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time," McGahn said.
"However, given the public interest and transparency in these unprecedented circumstances, the president has directed that Justice Department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee."
Panel members voted Monday to release the memo, sending it to Trump for approval.
The president had five days to render his decision. The GOP memo was released last week.
Connecticut Rep. James Himes told Anderson Cooper on CNN that "I'm not one bit surprised" by President Trump's decision.
"I'm really not," he said. "I, quite frankly, would have been surprised if the White House had let our memo go out at all."
But at least one Republican, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, called for both memos to be made public:
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