Devin Nunes speaks out about Russia, LA Times

Rep. Devin Nunes ridiculed an LA Times report about his comments at an April fundraiser in an interview Wednesday, calling it “fake news” and suggesting that the video was seen around the world before the Times got ahold of it.

Nunes, R-Tulare, appeared at that Tulare County fundraiser shortly after stepping aside from the Russia investigation. In the video, he’s seen saying Democrats are using the Russia probe to justify the party’s presidential loss.

College students who attended the fundraising dinner in Tulare County streamed his speech live on social media, he told the Visalia Times-Delta.

“That was not a leaked video. It was being broadcast all over the world,” he said. “For any publication to even pretend they got some secret video is the definition of fake news… and lazy reporting.”

While he’s recused himself from the Russia investigation, he insisted he’s been warning the nation’s leaders about Russia long before Donald Trump won in November.

“I’ve been very clear, my story is always the same,” he said. “I’m the one who warned people about Vladimir Putin and about Russia and the last administration ignored it and they didn’t even care about Russia until after the election. I find it very suspicious that this continues to be the theme that the media talks about day in and day out with using supposedly leaked intelligence information that would be breaking the law if that is indeed intelligence information.”

Since stepping aside from the Russia investigation, he also has taken a break from America’s television screens.

The congressman from California’s Central Valley, who remains chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said while he’s stepped out of the limelight, he’s still very much involved.

“I’m still watching it. I still read into all the information, I’m issuing subpoenas based on what we learn,” Nunes said. “Really, other than the day-to-day operations of me leading it, nothing has changed.”

After years of gaining expertise on Russia, Nunes said he’s the most logical person to run the investigation. His sidelining only hurts the nation, he said.

The Obama administration’s failure to support a full investigation into Russia was the “largest intelligence failure since 9/11,” Nunes said.

“As the guy who pointed this out, the one who predicted this would happen – that the Russians were doing really bad things to the United States and our allies, I find the irony that accusations would fly against the person that is probably one of the experts into the problem,” he said.

The House effort is now being overseen by a Nunes-appointed task force led by Rep. Mike Conaway, (R-Texas), with assistance from former prosecutors Reps. Trey Gowdy, (R-S.C.), and Tom Rooney, (R-Fla.)

Nunes said he hasn’t changed his conviction that there isn’t sufficient evidence to link Russia to Trump’s election win.

“As of right now we have no credible evidence that there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government and if we found that I would run it over to the Department of Justice and ask for prosecution as soon as that happened,” Nunes said. “Being that it’s been six or seven months now since the claims have been made by the party that lost the election, my guess is it doesn’t exist.”

Nunes doesn’t see the task force or his involvement with the committee changing anytime soon.

The hostile communication between the two parties doesn’t seem to be getting better, either. Nunes blames Democrats, saying they can’t accept defeat.

“I think the civil discourse in this country has reached a new low,” Nunes said. “You have one political party who refuses to accept they lost an election and we had a very rough transition of power, which is unfortunate.”

He sees Democrats as using the country’s divisions to target him.

“Obviously Washington is very political right now and it’s clear that the extreme left is doing anything and everything they can to do a character assassination on me,” Nunes said. “My guess is that eventually, one way or another, it will get cleared up.”