Nunes: A Bit Complicated

MSNBC — Tuesday night during the opening segment of The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS), the host, Rachel Maddow, aired secretly recorded audio clips that featured Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA). 

During a private fundraiser event that was held last week for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) Nunes offered remarks, he was unaware those remarks were being recorded, in the clips played on TRMS, Nunes, discusses President Trump Tweets, “Like sometimes you love the president’s tweets, sometimes we cringe on the president’s tweets.” (Audio Clip Two) 

Nunes talks about a campaign colluding with the Chinese or “you name the country,” giving the hypothetical where “Cathy,” obtains stolen emails from the Portuguese, she then decides to release the stolen emails, “okay,” Nunes says, “now we have a problem right? Because somebody stole the emails, gave ‘em to Cathy, Cathy released ‘em. Well, if that’s the case, then that’s criminal.” (Audio Clip Three) 

Nunes goes into detail about why and how come the Republican’s need to maintain the majority in the House in the last clip, TRMS played, he tells the audience, “If Sessions won’t unrecuse, and Mueller won’t clear the President, we’re the only ones,” he adds at the end of the clip, “if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away.” (Audio Clip One) 

Nunes also goes into detail about impeaching Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, after a member of the audience asks, “But also, on things that came up in the House on Rosestein impeachment thing. And it appears from an outsider that the Republicans were not supported,” Nunes starts his answer with “yeah, well, so it’s a bit complicated, right?” Nunes ends his answer by stating, “And then take the risk of not getting Kavanaugh confirmed. So it’s not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It’s a matter of, it’s a matter of timing.” He also explains in the clip that he has “publicly,” stated that Rosestein should be impeached and that he doesn’t think his colleagues would argue against impeachment, “I mean, so, I don’t think you’re gonna get any argument from most of our colleagues. The question is the timing of it right before the election.”

The clips, which were obtained by TRMS from the progressive group Fuse Washington and were recorded during a private fundraiser event with no press in attendance, a Fuse Washington member had paid to attend, are available at linked MSNBC article.

Authors note the audio clip numbers are from the MSNBC article that also has the opening segment of TRMS, where Maddow, explains each clip before they are aired.