Former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy advised the White House to be more careful with whom intelligence officials give classified briefings to.
“What the intelligence committee needs to give some thought to is stop briefing someone who has a history and is an epidemic leaker. Quit briefing him,” Gowdy said Monday on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.
“We spent … at least two years for Mueller to tell us there was no evidence of collusion. It took two minutes this time for us to find out there was no evidence,” he continued. “As soon as a Republican asked this briefer in the classified House [Intelligence Committee] briefing, ‘What evidence do you have to support that assessment?’ the answer was none.”
The former South Carolina congressman complained that leading Democrats have been using the media in recent years to spread damaging information about President Trump.
“Unfortunately, Sean, it is not against the law to lie to the American people,” he said of Rep. Adam Schiff. “There should be a consequence, and I hope people in the People’s Republic of California will remember it come, come November.”
Reports broke last week that national security officials briefed a House committee that Russia is meddling in the 2020 election to the benefit of Trump. Additional reports indicated that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign was notified the Kremlin might be trying to help his presidential bid as well. The president denied the reports and blamed Schiff for leaking the details to the press.
Schiff, however, fired back at Trump: “Your false claims fool no one. You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020. Now you fired your intel chief for briefing Congress about it. You’ve betrayed America. Again.”
