'Corrupted With Power': Democratic Lawmaker Smacks Down Devin Nunes Over Secret Recording

Matthew Chapman
and
AlterNet
09 August 2018

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is once again embroiled in controversy following the release of a secret recording of his remarks at a fundraiser for GOP Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In the recording, he stated that Republicans must keep the House in order to protect Trump from Special Counsel Robert Mueller — even while admitting collusion with a foreign power can be a criminal matter.

And his Democratic committee colleague, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is furious.

In conversation with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday, Swalwell made his views on the matter quite clear: Nunes is abusing his authority and needs to be removed.

"Paul Ryan should condemn this because this goes to the corruption that Donald Trump promised Americans he would clean up," said Swalwell. "And when I go across the country or talk to my own constituents, they're concerned about their health care, they're concerned about their paychecks, and they're concerned that nothing gets solved in Washington because it's all about power and corruption. And if we want to show the American people that's not what Washington is about, and that they are empowered, we should get rid of a corrupt chairman who is doing everything he can to protect a president under investigation. That is something Paul Ryan could do right now."

"You really think he's corrupt?" Cooper pressed him.

"I think he's been corrupted with power, and he believes that his job is to protect President Trump," said Swalwell. "And our country suffers because of that. And Anderson, because the House Intelligence Committee chairman cannot show unity and protect us against future Russian attacks, as we speak right now, the Russians are attacking us. They're not afraid of us. They believe Devin Nunes and Donald Trump have given them green lights, and I think right now, there's just too much corruption. That's what this election's going to be about."

Nunes' remarks are completely in line with his behavior as committee chairman throughout Trump's time in office.

He has sought to stall the House investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. He faced an ethics investigation last year in connection with a secret meeting he had with Trump, allegedly to help support his conspiracy theory that President Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped. And he authored a partisan memo that attacked the FBI for its investigation of the Trump campaign.

Throughout all this, Paul Ryan has remained supportive of him. And there is currently no indication that the GOP leadership plan to exact any consequence for this behavior, or even disapprove of it in the first place.