Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), has called for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) to be expelled from the House, saying the Intelligence Committee chairman has “brought dishonor” to the chamber.
Speaking Monday evening on MSNBC, Ornstein said Nunes’s repeated attacks on the U.S. intelligence community and his willingness to coordinate with the White House “against the interests of Congress” demonstrated that the California Republican had provided “aid and comfort to our enemies.”
{mosads}”I think what we’ve seen with Nunes going back to way before the attacks on the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] report, on the intelligence community; undermining key security of the United States; to when he was working with the White House against the interests of Congress, shutting out the minority as the chairman of the Intelligence Community — this is giving aid and comfort to our enemies,” Ornstein said.
“He has, I think, brought dishonor upon the House and endangered the country,” Ornstein added. “And I don’t say it lightly.”
Despite working for a conservative think tank, Ornstein has long been criticized by some Republicans as being in the liberal camp.
At an AEI event in 2013, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Ornstein was “a good old-fashioned far-left guy.” A year before that, McConnell referred to Ornstein on the Senate floor as an ultra-liberal.
Ornstein’s comments on MSNBC came days after the Justice Department released redacted documents related to surveillance warrants on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
Nunes had previously pushed the release of a memo authored by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that alleged missteps and abuses by FBI officials in obtaining the Page warrants.
Nunes is among President Trump’s most ardent congressional allies in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The Intelligence Committee chairman has repeatedly raised concerns about potential surveillance abuses against members of Trump’s campaign.