Former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) on Friday slammed GOP lawmakers for their behavior during a public hearing with FBI agent Peter Strzok, saying “it was a humiliating day to be a Republican.”
“They behaved like children,” Jolly said on MSNBC. “This was not about getting answers from Strzok.”
Jolly, a frequent critic of President Trump and the GOP since leaving office in 2017, made the comments a day after the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees held a joint hearing in which Republican members grilled Strzok for about 10 hours.
{mosads}Several GOP lawmakers questioned Strzok about text messages he exchanged with now-former FBI lawyer Lisa Page that revealed their dislike of Trump during the 2016 campaign.
The hearing quickly devolved into shouting matches between Democratic and Republican lawmakers. At one point, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) asked Strzok how many times he looked “innocently into [his] wife’s eyes” as he carried out an extramarital affair with Page.
“You need your medication,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) shouted at Gohmert after his remarks.
Strzok later replied that he has “always told the truth.”
Jolly added that the behavior exhibited on Thursday “has been part of the incremental strategy of both Trump” and “those in Congress who go along with him, to undermine the integrity of the investigation.”
Strzok’s hearing came about a month after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report assessing the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The report found no evidence of political bias by Strzok, Page or former FBI Director James Comey.