The Senate has a more pressing concern than impeaching Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: confirming nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That’s reportedly what House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told donors at a July 30 fundraiser in Washington state.
“So if we actually vote to impeach, OK, what that does is that triggers the Senate then has to take it up,” Nunes said, per a recording of his speech aired by MSNBC. “Well, and you have to decide what you want right now because the Senate only has so much time.”
“Do you want them to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice, the new Supreme Court justice?” he continued. “So it’s not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It’s a matter of, it’s a matter of timing.”
MSNBC was given the tape by a member of progressive group Fuse Washington, who made the recording after paying the $250 ticket price to attend the dinner. The event had been thrown by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wa.
A spokesman for Nunes told the Washington Examiner the congressman’s comments were commonsense.
“These are sensible ideas, I’m glad Chairman Nunes talked about them,” the representative said.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and his House Freedom Caucus colleague Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., announced in July that they had filed a resolution with nine other lawmakers to impeach Rosenstein, claiming the Justice Department’s No. 2 has hindered congressional oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., does not support the resolution.
A group of high-profile House Republicans have clashed with DOJ and FBI officials in recent months as they pursue documents covering the Russia probe — including the FBI’s use of informants to make contact with the 2016 Trump campaign and speculation it had abused Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act powers to gather information on Trump associates — and its examination of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
[Also read: CNN headline misleads readers about Brett Kavanaugh’s views]
