Schumer Floor Remarks: Speaker Ryan Needs to Replace Nunes as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to replace Rep. Devin Nunes as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Below are his remarks:

Mr. President, I rise this afternoon on a few topics. First, on the investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia.

This a matter of such gravity that we need to get it right. There should be no doubt about the integrity and impartiality of the investigation: either in the executive branch, where the FBI and DOJ are looking into it, or in Congress, where the Intelligence Committees of both chambers are conducting an investigation.

Unfortunately, the House Intelligence Committee has come under a cloud of suspicion and partisanship.

A few months ago, Chairman Nunes spoke to reporters at the request of the White House to tamp down stories on the links between the Trump campaign and Russia – which is exactly what his committee must now investigate.

This past week, Chairman Nunes broke with committee process and tradition to brief the president on information he learned but hadn’t yet shared with the Committee. Now we learn this morning that Chairman Nunes was at the White House a day before that event. Doing what? We don’t know.

Mr. President, it could very well be the case that Chairman Nunes was briefing members of the Administration about an investigation of which they are the subject.

Chairman Nunes is falling down on the job and seems to be more interested in protecting the President than in seeking the truth.

You cannot have the person in charge of an impartial investigation be partial to one side: it’s an inherent contradiction.

And it undermines decades of bi-partisan cooperation on the Intelligence committee, which handles such sensitive information paramount to national security; it undermines Congress as a co-equal branch of government, meant to hold the executive branch accountable for its actions; and it corrodes the American people’s confidence in our government.

Mr. President, if Speaker Ryan wants the House to have a credible investigation, he needs to replace Chairman Nunes.

Congress was meant by the framers to be separate and equal…and I sincerely worry that under his direction, Mr. Nunes is pushing the committee in a direction of obsequiousness, and not one that is asking the hard questions and getting the important answers.

There’s always been a grand tradition of bipartisanship on the intelligence committees. When Members go into the SCIF, the room where they get secure briefings, they check their partisanship at the door. Chairman Nunes is right on the edge of doing permanent damage to that great tradition of bipartisanship.

Chairman Nunes seems to be more of a partisan for the President than an impartial actor. He has not been operating like someone who is interested in getting to the unvarnished truth. His actions look like those of someone who is interested in protecting the President and his party. That doesn’t work when the goal of the committee is to investigate Russia and its connection to the President and his campaign.

Without further ado, Speaker Ryan should replace Chairman Nunes.