Schumer: GOP attacks on FBI ‘delusional,’ ‘paranoid’

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) ripped Republican lawmakers on Thursday, saying their recent attacks on the FBI are nothing more than “self-serving paranoia.”

“Since this investigation has started our nation has had to endure conspiracy after conspiracy from the right wing, Republican congressmen, senators and of course the right-wing press, which acts in total cahoots,” he said from the Senate floor. 

Schumer said GOP lawmakers are offering “conspiracy theories with virtually no fact. Paranoia, delusion — why?”

He also took a veiled swipe at Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has seized on a text message between two then-FBI officials, one of whom mentioned a “secret society,” possibly as a private joke.

“It looked delusional. It looked paranoid. What began as an attempt to discredit the investigator has now devolved into delusional, self-serving paranoia,” Schumer said, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.

But some Republicans and conservative media figures have pointed to the “secret society” text message as evidence of a deeply biased FBI, saying it only confirms their suspicions that the FBI gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a pass in its probe into her private email server. 

Schumer added on Thursday that the GOP criticism lines up “wittingly or unwittingly” with Russia. 

“Some of our Republican colleagues sadly unfortunately wittingly or unwittingly are acting as allies of Russia’s disinformation campaigns,” he said.

The attacks on the FBI and Justice Department “are playing right into Putin’s hands,” he added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.