House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused the GOP of “shameful, sad, irresponsible,” behavior for calling on Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to step down.
“They are just plain afraid,” Pelosi said, referring to the nine Republican lawmakers on the intelligence panel, who in a hearing Thursday called on Schiff — like Pelosi, a California Democrat — to give up the gavel.
Repubilcans, led by Rep. Mike Conaway, Texas, interrupted a hearing on Russian interference and read a statement accusing Schiff of pushing a false narrative, including leaks to the press, that President Trump colluded with Russia to win the White House. The GOP said Schiff was no longer fit to head the committee and should resign. Schiff refused, saying there is evidence Trump and his campaign team acted improperly and that he plans to investigate.
Pelosi told reporters she supports Schiff and the other five panel chairs, all Democrats, who have called on Attorney General William Barr to turn over the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller by next week or they’ll find a way to force him to provide it.
“I think they are just scaredy-cats,” Pelosi said “They just don’t know what to do. So they have to make an attack. They did the wrong thing. The American people know that. This is their own fear of the truth, their fear of the facts and fear of a patriotic leader who is going to make sure the American people know the truth.”
The Mueller report summary found no evidence of collusion but Democrats plan to mine the full document, reported to be more than 300 pages, for evidence of wrongdoing.
“I would not take too much solace in the Mueller report,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Friday. Pelosi said she does not trust Barr’s four-page summary.
“It was condescending, it was arrogant, it wasn’t the right thing to do,” Pelosi said. “The sooner they give us the report, the sooner we can make a judgment.”
