A top House Republican criticized the New York Times’s coverage of a newly released Justice Department watchdog report finding widespread problems with the FBI’s preparation of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications.
California Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, highlighted the newspaper’s write-up as an example of “mainstream” bias that he said should not be taken seriously.
Radio host Larry O’Connor read a passage from the report to Nunes during the Examining Politics podcast on Tuesday. It said DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report “helps the FBI politically because it undercuts the narrative among President Trump and his supporters that the bureau cut corners to surveil the adviser, Carter Page, as part of a politically motivated conspiracy.”
“So, the good news for the FBI is that they trampled on people’s rights all over the place, not just people who worked with Donald Trump’s campaign,” O’Connor said. “Is that the takeaway we should have here congressman?”
“The one thing you’re doing really smart is, when you read the mainstream news, you need to look for the narratives, Larry. So, you’re doing exactly what you should be doing,” Nunes said. “The idea that any mainstream paper would make that argument just shows you how biased and out of control they’ve become and why Americans need to reject these types of skewed media outlets. That is just not productive.”
As it was a breaking story on Tuesday, the New York Times published multiple updates to the report about the Horowitz memo, as shown by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The most recent update, published Tuesday evening, contained different language:
“The finding of systemic incompetence is devastating for the FBI. But, in the Trump era, the discovery is leavened by an unusual side benefit for the bureau: It undercuts the narrative fostered by President Trump and his supporters that the botching of applications to surveil his campaign adviser Carter Page is evidence that the FBI engaged in a politically biased conspiracy.”
Both versions stressed that Horowitz’s report revealed the FBI’s “pattern of sloppiness” up high.
Nunes, who was an early investigator working to root out FISA abuses against the 2016 Trump campaign, argued the older language in the New York Times report prejudges what happened in the effort to obtain these wiretaps for counterintelligence and counterterrorism reasons. In order to get a fuller picture, The congressman said further investigation by congressional overseers, including the House intelligence panel, would be needed. But he faulted Democrats, who are the majority in the House, for not committing to sufficient oversight in this matter.
“So, to come up with conclusions like the New York Times is doing is another good example of why people should reject these mainstream media outlets because all they are is, they’re operatives, essentially, for the Democratic National Committee and party operatives,” Nunes said.
Nunes is no stranger to speaking out about media reports he views as false and defamatory. The Republican has in recent months sued news outlets including CNN and the Washington Post for stories related about him.
Leading Republicans in the House and Senate are calling for Horowitz to testify about his new report, which uncovered a lack of properly documented verifications in dozens of electronic surveillance applications.
