Gowdy: Trump Advisers Should Weigh Quitting If He Doesn’t Heed Russia Intel

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok testifies before a joint committee hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill July 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. While involved in the probe into Hillary ClintonÕs use of a private email server in 2016, Strzok exchanged text messages with FBI attorney Lisa Page that were critical of Trump. After learning about the messages, Mueller removed Strzok from his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok testifies before a joint committee hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill July 12... Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok testifies before a joint committee hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill July 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. While involved in the probe into Hillary ClintonÕs use of a private email server in 2016, Strzok exchanged text messages with FBI attorney Lisa Page that were critical of Trump. After learning about the messages, Mueller removed Strzok from his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. MORE LESS
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House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s top advisers should consider resigning if he doesn’t follow their advice on Russia.

“The evidence is overwhelming, it can be proven beyond any evidentiary burden, that Russia is not our friend and they tried to attack us in 2016,” Gowdy told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “So the President either needs to rely on the people that he has chosen to advise him, or those advisers need to re-evaluate whether or not they can serve in this administration.”

“But the disconnect cannot continue. The evidence is overwhelming and the President needs to say that and act like it.”

Baier had asked Gowdy, who announced his retirement earlier this year, if he agreed with fellow House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Will Hurd’s (R-TX) op-ed in the New York Times Thursday asserting that Trump had “actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial [of election interference] and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.”

Gowdy didn’t answer directly, but said Trump had access to more evidence than anyone and specifically mentioned Trump’s access to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, all of whom Trump nominated for those roles.

“There is no way you can listen to the evidence and not conclude not that the Democrats were the victims, but the United States of America were the victims,” he said separately, adding: “There was this equivocation during the press conference that I’m glad he corrected it but when you’re the leader of the free world, every syllable matters, and you really shouldn’t be having to correct it when you’re the leader of the free world.”

Following Trump’s private meeting and subsequent disastrous press conference Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman on Saturday defended his decision not to resign.

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Notable Replies

  1. So trey why not just impeach trump and save a bunch of people the troubles of quitting their jobs? You’ve essentially quit yours.

  2. Avatar for remy remy says:

    Why are we still hearing stories about him? He’s bipolar as we know it. Changes his mind and contradicts himself routinely. Nothing new or interesting her.

  3. Come on now, Trey. You’re asking people to resign even as you characterize Trump’s words at the press conference with Putin as “equivocation”. That’s weak, Trey, beyond weak.

  4. What?! A Republican Congress conducting oversight of a Republican president. What a quaint novel idea. Unfortunately, Republicans only believe in conducting oversight when a Democrat is in charge, especially if his/her name is Barack or Hillary.

  5. He’s probably throwing out a little ‘criticism’ in case all this blows up in the Republican’s faces. He can now say “at least I said something!”

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