WH Claims That Trump Will Only Watch Nunes’ Nutso Opening Statement

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) during a session on November 15, 2019. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed Friday morning that President Donald Trump would tune out of former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s hearing after Intel Ranking Member Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) conspiracy theory-laden opening statement.

Nunes spent much of his time criticizing Democrats for the “TV spectacle” of the impeachment inquiry, rehashing a bogus conspiracy theory on 2016 Ukraine election meddling and reading from the first, fairly bland call Trump had with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The White House released the transcript of that earlier Trump call just as the hearing was getting underway Friday.

“Even as they were accusing Republicans of colluding with Russians, the Democrats themselves were colluding with Russians by funding the Steele Dossier, which was based on Russian and Ukrainian sources,” he said, citing a favorite right-wing conspiracy theory. “Meanwhile, they turn a blind eye to Ukrainians meddling in our elections, because the Democrats were cooperating with that operation.”

Nunes also bashed Wednesday’s hearing with Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, calling it “hearsay.

“I’m glad that on Wednesday, after the Democrats staged six weeks of secret depositions in the basement of the Capitol, like some kind of strange cult, the American people finally got to see this farce for themselves,” he said. “They saw us sit through hours of hearsay testimony about conversations that two diplomats who had never spoken to the President heard second-hand, third-hand and fourth-hand from other people.”

The witnesses’ degrees of separation from the President was a frequent Republican complaint during the first hearing, despite the fact that the White House is blocking most witnesses who spoke to Trump directly from testifying. In addition, as ranking member on the committee, Nunes sat in on all of the “secret depositions” of the last few weeks.

Trump often claims that he’s not watching events like this one, but tends to live-tweet throughout.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for docd docd says:

    Scandals always have euphemisms that enter our vernacular. Watergate had “explicative deleted” and we will have "working hard for the American people,” which is an euphemism for “eating Big Macs and screaming at the television.”

  2. Avatar for eglot eglot says:

    Dems responses: facts, facts, facts.
    Repubs responses: DISTRACT! GO OFF TOPIC! YELL! MOOOOO!

  3. Dagger? I’d have used a Hammer and Sickle…

  4. If this was only a reality tv show where he controls everything, Donnie wouldn’t be in over his head.

    His Nunes stunts are not going to give him a media win. I expect him to rage tweet until his head explodes. I cannot figure out why that hasn’t happened already.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

34 more replies

Participants

Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for epicurus Avatar for losamigos Avatar for impurescience Avatar for sniffit Avatar for psudawnc Avatar for eglot Avatar for nikta Avatar for slimjim33 Avatar for jinnj Avatar for sw23 Avatar for docd Avatar for jtx Avatar for hankscorpio Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for chlarry Avatar for uneducated Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for bobcanuel Avatar for enhancedthespian Avatar for newhavenep5 Avatar for c_stedman Avatar for dogselfie Avatar for scabbysanta

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: