House Intel Dem: Nunes should be off panel ‘yesterday’

A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) should be off the panel “yesterday.”

“Yesterday, yes,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) responded when asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if Nunes should be forced off the panel.

Swalwell joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in calling for Nunes to be removed from the Intelligence post over his push to release a memo alleging surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice.

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Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday pushed back against calls for him to remove Nunes from the panel, saying that the memo is not “an indictment on our institutions” and “does not impugn” the top investigator on the Russia probe. 

Swalwell has claimed that Nunes has been disruptive of the investigation into Russia’s election meddling, as GOP congressmen have hailed the memo as evidence that the FBI acted on political bias against Trump in that investigation. 

“The Democrats don’t trust the Republicans anymore that they will do the right thing, and the leader is Nunes. Only Speaker Ryan can remove him, and, again, as we sit here today, Speaker Ryan is endorsing everything that Nunes and the White House are doing,” Swalwell said.