California congressman Devin Nunes questioned why Republicans lost their majority in the House of Representatives in 2018 if Russians are interfering on the political party’s behalf.
“You notice how when they win elections, the Russians didn’t do anything. So, if the Russians, supposedly and Putin, only like Republicans, why did they ‘let’ the Republicans lose the House of Representatives?,” Nunes said during an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle on Thursday.
Nunes’ appearance came hours after The New York Times reported that intelligence officials informed lawmakers that Russia is attempting to interfere in the 2020 general election. According to the Times, Republicans who attended the meeting told officials that Trump has been tough on Russia, and the country has no reason to help the president get reelected.
Nunes was among the Republicans present at the meeting, the Times said.
Democratic congressman Adam Schiff was also present at the briefing and retweeted the Times’ article, stating, “We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections. If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling.” Schiff has been a longtime critic of the president, and spearheaded efforts that led to Trump’s impeachment in the House last year. He then led the House managers’ case before the Senate that resulted in Trump’s acquittal on two articles of impeachment — obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
According to the Times, Trump believes that the new intelligence reports regarding Russian interference in the 2020 election will be “weaponized” by his opponents. On Friday, he dismissed the newspaper’s reporting on Twitter, writing, “Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me.”
Similar allegations of Russia influencing U.S. elections have haunted Trump’s first presidential term, including a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election determined that the country did work to put Trump in the White House, but that the president’s campaign did not collude with Russia.
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Nunes has defended the president from collusion allegations in the past, telling Fox News’ America’s Newsroom in May 2019, “Bob Mueller knew the day that he walked in the door there was no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russians.”
Last year, Ingraham Angle show host Laura Ingraham proclaimed Nunes her own “Person of the Year” for using his role as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee to fight against Trump’s impeachment.
Nunes was a source of controversy last year after records showed that he had multiple conversations with Lev Parnas, a close aide to Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Parnas allegedly helped the former New York City mayor dig up dirt in Ukraine on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Nunes has said that he did not recall any of those conversations, which some viewed as a conflict of interest for the ranking House Intelligence Committee member.
