House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) was evasive when confronted by reporters Tuesday about his behavior in that role, which committee Democrats have said is too friendly toward the Trump administration.
“Look, I’d like to answer your question, but I’d like to know first what the purpose of that would be,” Nunes told a reporter who asked if he would recuse himself from the committee’s investigation into Trump associates’ connections to Russian officials.
“Why that would be? Because someone asks? That’s not how it works to me,” he said.
“Why would I not” continue to chair the investigation, he asked rhetorically later. “You’ve got to talk to them, that sounds like their problem,” he said, referring to Democrats who have called on him to step aside.
Democrats on the committee, including Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) have called for Nunes to step aside from its investigation of possible connections and collusion between Trump staffers and Russian officials, after Nunes admitted Monday that he met with an anonymous source on White House grounds the day before he claimed that Trump associates’ information was “incidentally” collected by intelligence agencies.
Nunes has not shared evidence for that claim with other members of the committee.
Asked about a cancelled open hearing originally scheduled for Tuesday – which would have included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates – Nunes said “nothing has been cancelled.”
Rather, Nunes said, he first wanted the committee to convene a closed session with FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers. Nunes had originally justified cancelling the open hearing by scheduling the closed session with Comey and Rogers at the same time.
The committee cancelled that closed session on Monday afternoon.
Watch below, via CNN:
