House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi thinks the White House duped House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes into defending President Trump at the expense of his investigation into Russia.
On NBC Friday, Pelosi said Nunes appeared to be a pawn in some members of the Trump administration’s game.
“He was duped. That’s the most innocent, most benign characterization… but he should have known better.” –@NancyPelosi on Nunes pic.twitter.com/RxakhYLCti— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 31, 2017
“He was a dupe, he was duped,” Pelosi said. “That’s the most innocent, the most benign characterization. But, he was duped, he should have known better.”
Democrats are calling for Nunes to step down from his role as the leader of the committee or at least recuse himself from the investigation after a week of bad headlines for the Republican.
Nunes visited the White House last week to view sensitive information from a source that he said showed President Trump and his associates may have been caught up in surveillance of foreign targets. He briefed the press and then went to speak to Trump about what he had seen before briefing the members of the committee, angering Democrats.
On Thursday, reports indicated either two or three members of the White House were Nunes’ sources and allowed him into the White House to view the information. Nunes refused to confirm or deny the identity of his sources.
Pelosi said Nunes was used by the White House to defend Trump’s tweets attacking President Obama, which claimed Obama ordered him to be spied on during the election. Nunes has said repeatedly there is no evidence for that claim.
“Whether the president was aware or not, that’s one thing,” she said. “The White House the Trump administration certainly was. It’s certainly bizarre.”
