House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., indicated Monday night that he won’t recuse himself from his panel’s investigation into Russia’s influence on the election, after Democratic calls for him to step aside.
Nunes has been accused of working too closely with President Trump, when he should instead be looking hard for evidence that Trump and Russian officials worked together to defeat Hillary Clinton.
But when asked about the idea of recusing himself on Fox News, Nunes indicated that he wouldn’t bow down to Democratic demands.
“I’m sure that the Democrats do want me to quit because they know that I’m quite effective of getting to the bottom of things,” he said.
Just hours earlier, the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Nunes should step down because Nunes apepars to have learned from the White House that Obama administration officials unfairly “unmasked” members of the Trump transition team.
Nunes said his committee is investigating both the Democratic charges of Russian interference in the election, and Trump’s charges that Obama officials “unmasked” some Trump transition team members unfairly.
Nunes acknowledged that he was on White House grounds last week to learn more about the unmasking incidents, and said he often gathers intelligence this way because the Executive Branch has access to information that Congress doesn’t have.
He said that when he learned the unmasking was unrelated to Russia, he felt compelled to tell reporters and Trump directly.
“There was no sneaking around,” he said of his visit.
