Touches several other serving republican members of congress and disgraced health secretary, tom price, the first trump Cabinet Secretary to resign in scandal. We have had our fair share of political scandals and public corruption indictments as a country. That is a history that includes todays date on the calendar in 1974, when president Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in the wake of the watergate scandal, this day, 1974. But even so, even with that rich history under our belts, it really is something when you wake up to the news of a sitting member of congress being indicted by federal prosecutors and the sight of a sitting member of congress being hauled before a federal judge for criminal arraignment. So, we will have more ahead tonight on trump ally republican congressman Chris Collins turning himself in and being indicted and arraigned on federal criminal charges today
including talking to the intrepid local reporter at the buffalo news, who first broke the story that turned into this scandal and who himself, the reporter, gets a cameo role in todays indictment of the congressman he first exposed. That is all. Thats all coming up tonight. But, we have gotten an exclusive story we have to break ourselves tonight before we get to Chris Collins and the other stuff that happened today. Our exclusive tonight concerns another republican in congress who would definitely make the finals in our hypothetical pageant to choose the members of congress, the president s favorite. California congressman devin nunes was important but was a low profile member of congress, low profile to the extent nobody really recognized him on sight. Definitely nobody knew how to pronounce his last name. Even though Congressman Nunes was a relatively anonymous
member of congress he had a big job, head of the intelligence committee, a big deal. Since trump was elected. Devin nunes, a trump supporter, Senior Member of the transition has turned the job into a full time crusade to try to derail the Russian Investigation by any means necessary and to defend trump in that investigation at almost any cost. Congressman nunes has pressured the Justice Department and fbi into making unprecedented disclosures of Law Enforcement sensitive material and Classified Information actively being used in ongoing investigations, he got himself investigated by the Ethics Committee for himself involve an elaborate stunt from information he received from allies in the white house and then called a Press Conference to announce he was going back up to the Trump White House to deliver to them the shocking classified
information that in fact they had just given him. The man has been acrobatic to the point of contortion in his efforts to make the russia investigation go away, and to turn the investigation of that attack into itself a bigger scandal than the attack in the first place. The president has been very appreciative of Congressman Nunes efforts in this area. A Great American hero. A true american patriot, devin nunes deserves everyones support. Vote for devin nunes. Tonight, we have some news about devin nunes. One of the republican members of congress who had a tough time in a primary last night is a Senior Leader of the Republican House leadership from washington state. Congressman Cathy Mcmorrisrodgers. Tonight, we have obtained an audiotape that was made at one of her final fund raisers before last nights difficult primary. We obtained this from a Progressive Group called fuse washington. Someone from that group paid to attend this Cathy Mcmorrisrodgers fundraiser and made this recording at this event. It was held on monday of last week. It was a closed press event. Because of that, what happened has not been reported anywhere because reporters were not allowed in when this thing happened last week. Tonight, we have obtained the tape of what happened at that fundraiser. On that tape, you will hear congressman Cathy Mcmorrisrodgers a little bit. You will mostly hear the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee, congressman devin nunes, who was her guest at that fundraiser trying to raise funds for her for her reelection battle. At this event, Congressman Nunes somewhat radically veers from the script where hes supposed to be raising money for cathy
mcmorrisrodgers and encourage her supporters to be enthusiastic about her candidacy, he veers from that script as you will hear and instead makes lengthy and controversial remarks about the Trump White House and specifically about the russia investigation. These are not the kinds of things devin nunes usually says in public. This is an event closed press, held Behind Closed Doors for these republican donors only. These remarks from devin nunes were never supposed to be public as far as he and Cathy Mcmorrisrodgers knew and presumably thought they would never become public. We have now obtained them. We believe they are newsworthy and revelatory in several instances. I will make them public right now. Here goes. We go smaller to medium sized to big here. First thing to know about the way congressman devin nunes talks behind doors when he
thinks there will be no Press Coverage of what he says. For all of his very public expression of support for President Trump, turns out when hes speaking Behind Closed Doors, hes willing to say hes actually a little embarrassed by President Trump, that the president s statements sometimes make him cringe. This is the first clip from devin nunes, in the context of Congressman Nunes criticizing the Russian Investigation and specifically talking about the recent news the president s statements on twitter might be cited as evidence in that investigation. Listen. They know its ridiculous to go after the president for obstruction of justice. But if they tell a lie often enough and they put it out there and they say, oh, were looking at the tweets because you know you have a mixed bag on the tweets right . Sometimes we love the president s tweets and sometimes we cringe on the president s tweets, but theyre trying to make a political this is all
political from the New York Times on tweets. Sometimes we cringe on the president s tweets. Substantively, who could possibly take issue with that, right . In real political terms, though, the president probably will take issue with that, especially given the way the president has used twitter specifically to hype up support for congressman devin nunes. Nunes we now know tells donors Behind Closed Doors the president s tweets make him cringe. More substantively the white house will also want to know while the congressman has been the single lead antagonist of the russia investigation in congress, while Congressman Nunes has done more than any other Congressional Republican to try to Monkey Wrench the Robert Mueller investigation in order to protect President Trump and his campaign, turns out, even Congressman Nunes, behind
closed doors, is willing to concede if anyone in the United States had anything to do with the release of emails and documents stolen during the campaign, that unequivocally would be a criminal act. Now, if somebody think that my campaign or cathys campaign is colluding with the chinese or you name the country, hey, could happen, it would be a very bad thing if cathy was getting secrets from the portuguese, lets say, just because im portuguese, my family was, so cathy was getting secret information from the portuguese may or may not be unusual, built ultimately say the portuguese brought her some stolen emailed and decided to release that, if thats the case, thats criminal. Thats criminal. Just in case its not clear here, the reference to the
portuguese here, you hear a chuckle here, not because Congressman Nunes is saying portugal did anything wrong, the congressman himself is of portugal descent and using a hypothetical of portugal reference and why we have that. Can we rerack and play the last part of that. Lets say the portuguese came and brought her some stolen emails and she decided to release those, okay, now, we have a problem, right . Because somebody stole the emails and gave them to cathy. Cathy released them. If thats the case, thats criminal. If thats the case, thats criminal. Again, substantively it is hard to believe anybody to have been involved in the dissemination of stolen emails as part of a political campaign. Substantively we agree. With federal prosecutors now
claiming in a federal indictment wikileaks and d. C. Leaks and guccifer 2. 0 were the means by which stolen emails were disseminated during the president ial election and lots of still accruing evidence People Associated with the Trump Campaign and the president s family and the president himself helped in that dissemination during the campaign, it cannot help that the lead opponent of the russia investigation privately concedes when he thinks nobody is recording him that sort of activity, if proven, that would definitely be criminal. Now, we have a problem, right . Because if somebody stole the emails, gave them to cathy, cathy released them, if thats the case, thats criminal. How does that line up with the Trump Campaign and what they did with wikileaks and the others. And now two stories will make a little bit of news here. Challenger. Given those result last night, republican Cathy Mcmorris rodgers looks like shes in real danger of losing her seat this fall. When constituents decide whether or not they will return her to washington they will also have this to chew on in addition to what they already know about their long time member of congress. Here, for the first time ever, is congressman devin nunes. The tape you will hear is Congressman Nunes responding to a question from the audience at this fundraiser, about the Justice Department official who oversees the Robert Mueller investigation, Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. You might recall right before they left for summer recess a couple weeks ago, a few hard line fringe pro trump republican members of Congress Actually introduced Impeachment Proceedings against Rod Rosenstein greeted with mostly
live House Republican plan to impeach Rod Rosenstein. They just dont want it to seem like theyre pursuing it now. Theyre waiting for two important things to happen first and then their plan is to go ahead. Heres that tape. You will mostly here congressman devin nunes here and an Audience Member asking the question starts this whole discussion. At one point in this middle of devin nunes response you will hear a womans Voice Interjecting that is the chairman of the House Congress newly embattled congressman Cathy Mcmorris rodgers. But also on things that came up in the House On Rosen Stein impeachment thing, it appears from an outdosider that the republicans were not for it. Its a bit complicated, right . I say that because you have to we only have so many months its a matter of timing. This again is audio that was recorded at a closed door closed press private fundraiser for Cathy Mcmorris rodgers next week, facing an unexpected difficult fight to hold onto her seat in congress and only won by 1 of the vote. Can we have that transcript to put up for a second . There have been these public statements by the Republican Leadership in congress theyre not pursuing this crazy idea of impeaching Rod Rosenstein. Despite those public statements heres Cathy Mcmorris rodgers appearing to agree in fact they are going to pursue impeaching Rod Rosenstein once the election is over and once they have the new Supreme Court justice installed. Impeaching Rod Rosenstein has nothing to do with Rod Rosenstein. What it is, is the only option, the one option the republican
congress has to really force the end of the mueller investigation. If they impeach and forcibly remove from office the man who oversees the mueller investigation, that is how they could arrange the installation of somebody else put in place in that same job who would shut the investigation down. Its really the only thing Congressional Republicans could do to stop the mueller investigation. Its their emergency brake, an extreme crazy option and been seen that way extreme if not crazy thus far in washington, at least in public statements by House Republican leadership in washington. Heres evidence from this audio that the house leadership is secretly on board with this plan. But for after the election. And they want to specifically sequence it so it happens once President Trumps nominee is safely installed on the supreme
court. That may be just about wanting the Supreme Court nomination fight to take precedence over anything else or that theyre expecting the impeachment of Rod Rosenstein to precipitate some type of constitutional crisis for which they want to make sure they have the new trump justice ensconced on the high court. Last one. Congressman devin nunes leads the intelligence committee, a big deal, big responsibility. Cathy Mcmorris Rodgers helps lead the Republican Caucus in congress. At this private fundraiser for congresswoman Morris Rodgers last week, Congressman Nunes spelled out in quite blunt terms how he sees his role in the Russian Investigation and how he sees the responsibility of all in congress as to the Russian Investigation and specifically why he sees it so important they keep the majority to keep control of congress in the elections this fall. This is the last clip here, one more piece of tape from this fundraiser. Here we go. So therein lies, so its like your classic catch22 situation, where we were at a this puts us in such a tough spot. If Sessions Wont Unrecuse, Mueller Wont Clear the president , were the only ones, which is really the danger. Thats why i keep thank you for saying that, by the way we have to keep all these, we have to keep the majority. We do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. Were the only one, thats the danger. Put up the transcript of that again. Thank you. If Sessions Wont Unrecuse and Mueller Wont Clear the president , were the only ones. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. So Behind Closed Doors when they dont think theres any recording of what theyre saying, theyve been told theres no press, theyve disallowed the press from being there, its a private republicans only closed fundraiser, the case theyre making is that they either need to stop the investigation of the president , they need to stop the russia investigation or keep using the power of congress to impede that investigation, or else, right . Or quote all of this goes away. Thats why they want to keep the majority. Thats the stakes for them keeping the majority. Theyre using the majority to impede the investigation. If they lose the majority the investigation might go forward, and then quote all of this goes away. So, again, we obtained this audio from a Progressive Group called fuse washington, someone from that group paid to attend this fundraiser and made
this recording. We, of course, asked congressman devin nunes for comment.