The right is constantly looking for an excuse to undermine the entire Russia investigation, pretending that the entire thing was based solely on the Steele dossier when it wasn't, and doing their best to undermine the dossier, even though core aspects of the dossier have indeed been verified.
They're also apparently still smarting from demands that former House Intel Committee chair Devin Nunes recuse himself, despite the fact that his recusal was pretty much a joke, which he never had any intention of honoring. The right was already demanding that current chair Adam Schiff recuse himself from any investigation of Russian collusion way back in 2017, simply because the ranking member was a supporter of Hillary Clinton.
Following an op-ed from one of The Hill's right-wing contributors, John Solomon, attacking Schiff for a brief meeting with Fusion GPS' Glenn Simpson during a security conference in Aspen last July, the wingnut outrage machine is out in full force, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy using the meeting to again demand that Schiff recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
Shortly after the op-ed was published, Trump followed suit and went after Schiff on Twitter:
Schiff brushed off the criticism, telling NBC News “I can understand why the idea of oversight terrifies him. We need to do our job, he needs to do his. And a big part of our job is making sure we root out any corruption or malfeasance.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy made an appearance on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures this Sunday, and repeated the smears from his blog post, and calling Schiff a "modern day Joe McCarthy" for --heaven forbid!-- doing his job and investigating Trump:
BARTIROMO: Congressman, you sent a letter to Adam Schiff, now the chairman of the intel committee, We know that Adam Schiff has said for a long time, he said two years ago he has more than circumstantial evidence that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. And we also know that this past week, we got news from the Senate, where the Senate said was all of their findings after a two year period, they have found no collusion. Explain the letter you sent to Adam Schiff and what you are trying to do?
MCCARTHY: I put it out on a blog, and I raised questions about Adam Schiff. Yes, you state that in March 2017, he said he had had this proof. He sounds like a modern day Joe McCarthy and can't produce anything as we move through. We had the Senate and House investigate this and say there is no collusion from Republicans and Democrats.
But you know what we recently found out, Maria? I've got to thank you, because this is something that you have been monitoring the entire time and bringing out information on. We now find that Adam Schiff met with Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS, the individual that created that fake dossier, in aspen which never has been known to us.
First of all what did they meet about? And this was after the committee wanted to look into Glenn Simpson even further, because the credibility of the answers he gave when he came before the committee. Let's think about this. I want to know what they talked about there? How many other times have they met? But why did Adam Schiff fight when we wanted to find out who paid Fusion GPS? Well we found out it was the Democrat National Committee.
But why did Adam Schiff fight that? And then why did Adam Schiff ask Glenn Simpson in the hearing, what should we investigate and where should we go? Why is he taking direction from this individual that does not have credibility, who created a fake dossier? And then Adam Schiff, who is now the chairman, why doesn't he hold himself to the same standards that he asked Jeff Sessions and Devin Nunes?
He should recuse himself based upon meeting with an individual that's under, that we're looking at from creating the Fusion GPS, I mean from Fusion GPS and not even telling us. In that part, the bias of what's going forward, he should recuse himself from any future investigation, or being the chairman.
BARTIROMO: This is of course the guy who was paid, his firm was paid a million dollars to create that dossier. Bruce Ohr's wife worked at the firm. Glenn Simpson running the firm Fusion GPS that created that dossier, which was used to wiretap an American citizen Carter Page, and we know that it was unverified and fallacious, which is what Jim Comey called it.
MCCARTHY: And remember what Adam Schiff said, because he said Devin Nunes met with somebody at the White House he had to recuse himself. Remember Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General had to reduce himself because he met with some Russian he didn't even realize when they went through. Now we're knowing from The Hill that Adam Schiff knew who he was meeting with, Glenn Simpson in Aspen. What did they meet about? Even after the committee knew they had to investigate Glenn Simpson further because the credibility the answers he gave inside the hearing. They contradicted. They could be lying before Congress, based upon the investigation and answers given by other individuals.
BARTIROMO: Right, and now of course we all know that Hillary Clinton paid his firm Fusion GPS to create the dossier when we didn't know the specifics before. Okay Congressman, let's take a break. You want him to recuse himself from the Russian probe. That was one of your questions within that blog post.
They know they can't run cover for Trump any more since they no longer head the committees in the House, so they're going to try to delegitimize them instead.
Editor's Note: Although Heather's transcript does not indicate it, McCarthy can't keep himself from being small and petty like Trump and refers to his colleague as "Adam Shift". So clever, those Republicans, with their name calling.
**UPDATED to include the smallness of McCarthy's name-calling.
