Gowdy says he’s leaving Congress because he likes jobs ‘where facts matter’

Retiring GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.) said Wednesday that part of the reason he is leaving Congress is that he likes “jobs where facts matter.”

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced last month that he would not seek reelection and would return to a career in the justice system.

“I miss my old job,” Gowdy told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “I miss the justice system. I like jobs where facts matter, I like jobs where fairness matters. I like jobs, frankly, where the process matters. … I’m more at peace in jobs that reward fairness and that are fact-centric than I am in Congress.”

Camerota pressed him on his comments, asking, “So facts don’t matter in Congress?”

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“I think what matters in Congress is finding a group and then validating or ratifying what they already believe,” Gowdy replied after a light laugh.

Gowdy said that, in his seven years in Congress, he has not witnessed anyone’s mind be changed on an issue by a speech or debate.

“I like the art of persuasion, I like it when facts matter, and I don’t see that in our current modern political environment,” he said.

Gowdy was most recently in the national spotlight over the controversy surrounding texts between FBI employees that Republicans said proved anti-Trump bias in the bureau.

Gowdy was one of several GOP lawmakers who raised concerns over one of the messages that referenced a “secret society,” which Republican lawmakers later conceded was likely a joke.

He also said, after the release of a previously classified GOP memo that alleged bias in the FBI and Justice Department, that the content of the memo has “no impact on the Russia probe” despite President Trump claiming it “totally vindicates” him.