House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday slapped down the suggestion that the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee should relinquish his post.
McCarthy’s defending the standing of Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., after all nine GOP members of the panel signed a letter calling on Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to resign as chairman because they had “no faith” in his leadership given his repeated assertion there was “more than circumstantial evidence” that President Trump colluded with Russia.
“We want to know we’re safe. We want to know we can trust what comes out of that committee. He has no ability to produce his job when every single member on the other side said I can’t stand for you to stay as chair, and to equate that any way with Congressman Devin Nunes is wrong,” McCarthy told reporters of Schiff during a Capitol Hill press conference.
McCarthy, who this week said Schiff was “unfit” to be chairman, added that special counsel Robert Mueller’s work as part of the federal Russia investigation vindicated Nunes’ doubts that the former FBI director would uncover any wrongdoing by Trump.
Nunes, who was House Intelligence Committee chairman last term, bowed to political pressure and recused himself as head of one of the House inquiries into links between Trump and the Kremlin after he reportedly visited the White House in March 2017 to discuss raw intelligence information showing Trump transition team members had been surveilled by law enforcement agencies. The House Ethics Committee later cleared him of any impropriety.
In the days since the release of the four-page memo summarizing Mueller’s conclusions, McCarthy has urged House Democrats to move on since the special counsel failed to find any evidence that Trump collaborated with Moscow ahead of the election. He has also implored Schiff to apologize for his allegations.
“And you know what? I removed a member of our own committees,” McCarthy said in a veiled reference to Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who was stripped of his assignments in January over racially insensitive comments. “This is the committee that sees things that the majority of members do not get to know. How can you trust that individual?”
