Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., a rising star with grassroots conservatives after defending President Trump against charges of colluding with Russia, is putting his political celebrity to work for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee signed two NRCC email fundraising appeals in March.
The missives target partisans who tend to be more enthusiastic than rank-and-file voters and donate money in small amounts — with the proper motivation. The NRCC wouldn’t ask the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to sign two emails in less than a month if he didn’t have pull with this crowd.
“As you can probably tell, I’m not the Mainstream Media’s favorite right now. Despite what they say about me, I refuse to yield to the radical left or their friends in the media,” the latest email, dropped this week, read. “The problem is, this makes me and other conservatives like me a target in the midterms. That’s why I’m asking everyone in our movement to step up and help me fend off the lies and attacks.”
Nunes was for years a well-known figure on Capitol Hill but otherwise obscure outside of his Republican-leaning Central Valley district.
But he has seen his stock rise with party activists after months of vigorously defending Trump against allegations, mostly from Democrats, that he colluded with Russia to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign.
The congressman is a regular on popular Fox News programs like “Hannity” and other radio and television shows that draw a heavy, Trump-friendly audience. Nunes also has used his perch on the House Select Committee on Intelligence to launch a counteroffensive against the president’s opponents.
He has supervised a House Intelligence panel probe of possible malfeasance by Trump’s opponents in the 2016 campaign as well as alleged impropriety on the part of the FBI and other federal officials that were involved in investigating Trump during that period, continuing through the transition and after he was inaugurated.
