WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV— House Speaker Paul Ryan ignored calls from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to remove California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes from his post as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
“I think they’re just playing politics. I think they’re just looking for a political distraction is what I get out of that. Look, the tax cuts are working. Tax reform is working. We’ve got ISIS on the run. Things are going well,” Ryan told reporters at the Republican retreat.
“Economic confidence is at a 17 year high. I think they would like nothing more than to play politics and change the subject,” he continued. “Devin Nunes helped shepherd through a reauthorization of 702 which is the foreign terrorist foreign surveillance law, so he is focusing on keeping us safe. He’s focusing on national security. I think what they’re trying to do is just sidetrack us with some political game.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a scathing letter to Speaker Ryan, which the New York Democrat released Thursday, criticizing both Nunes and Ryan.
“Quite simply, under your leadership, dangerous partisanship among many House Republicans seems to have taken precedent over the oath we all take to protect our nation,” he wrote. “Given these concerns, your inaction and Chairman Nunes’ actions raise critical questions that need to be answered,” Schumer wrote.
Leader Pelosi pressed Ryan to, “put an end to this charade and hold Congressman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people.”
Ryan defended the release of the memo telling reporters, “I say let all of it out, as long as we are not revealing sources and methods.”