Rep. Devin Nunes said Monday that Democratic criticism actually helps the Republican efforts in highlighting the issues in government institutions.
“We actually enjoy the criticism. Because when you’re being criticized like this by all the major networks, and when you’re being attacked by the left, we know that we’re getting close to the truth,” Mr. Nunes, California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News.
Mr. Nunes said Democrats knew he never leaked information to the White House last year, despite their accusations, but just wanted to have him removed from the committee.
“Democrats were well aware that I did not release information, however, for a year they stayed quiet. They advocated for my removal from the committee. And why is that? It’s because we’ve been successful at getting to the bottom of a lot of real problems with the institutions in our government,” he said.
“Whatever they accuse you of doing is what they’re doing,” Mr. Nunes added.
The tensions between Mr. Nunes and Democrats boiled over last week when the committee voted to release a memo based on intelligence they’d received. Republicans argued in their memo that it showed an unverified dossier was used to collect intelligence on certain Trump campaign aides. Democrats, who are pushing to have their memo released this week, say this allegation is based on cherry-picked information from the source documents.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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