Chuck Schumer: House Republicans Secretly Tell Me Devin Nunes is ‘Off the Deep End’
Taking the Senate floor in a fiery speech Tuesday morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said members of Rep. Devin Nunes‘s (R-CA) own party “think he’s off the deep end.”
The remark came during a statement about President Donald Trump‘s Sunday demand that the Department of Justice launch an investigation into whether a spy infiltrated his election campaign, a move which would counter Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia probe. Schumer said Trump’s request broke “longstanding and critical norms against political interference in law enforcement matters.”
On Monday, the president met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, reaching an agreement with Rosenstein for the counter-investigation to be launched. Flabbergasted by the meeting, Schumer called it “amazing.”
“The president and his staff should not be involved in reviewing or dissemination of sensitive investigatory information involving any open investigation, let alone one about the activities of his own campaign,” he said. “It is what you hear happening in third world countries. The leader says, ‘Nope, I’m above the law,’ and interferes with the process of law.”
Schumer contended that the president’s demands were equivalent to interference, calling him “the most biased, irresponsible” actor.
Trump has been especially angered by reports that an FBI informant met with members of his campaign in the initial stages of the Russia investigation, and Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, has since subpoenaed the Justice Department for information related to that informant. That has Schumer concerned.
“A man like Devin Nunes, who I hear privately from my Republican colleagues they think he’s off the deep end, and he’s going to get hold of this,” he asked incredulously. “And we think that’s for fair unbiased oversight? Give me a break.”
Schumer concluded by demanding that any meetings that occur be attended by members of both sides of the aisle to ensure that it is fair and bipartisan.
Watch the clip above, via C-SPAN.
[Image via screengrab]
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