Republican attack dog Rep. Devin Nunes was in fine form on Thursday morning, leading off the GOP attacks on the whistleblower complaint with wild allegations that the Democrats pursued “nude pictures” of Trump.
Does that sound like a nonsensical tangent designed to muddle and confuse the process as much as possible to you? Funny how that works out. Nunes launched into his spiel in his opening statement before Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before the House Intelligence Committee, with Nunes playing the hits from the Republican playbook in order to cast the entire impeachment inquiry as a bad-faith crusade by the Democrats to take down Trump.
His line of attack was both completely predictable and also bullshit. Take the nude pictures thing, a wild offhand allegation that probably flew over most viewers’ heads.
Turns out, Nunes is referring to a prank phone call by two Russian comedians, which Schiff didn’t engage with other than to tell them to send their material to the FBI and the House Intelligence Committee. Not really a gotcha there.
The rest of Nunes’s opening statement was similarly deranged. If you want to put yourself through it, it’s here: