Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday criticized Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Judiciary committees, saying she “wouldn’t want to be a Republican on that committee” when Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) questioned a witness on his extramarital affair earlier in the day.
The commentary comes after an explosive day of hearings on Capitol Hill. FBI agent Peter Strzok, whom Ingraham called “snooty and indignant,” testified for hours before the joint committees about sending anti-Trump text messages while working on the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) during the hearing said he felt Strzok deserved a Purple Heart for enduring aggressive questioning from the Republicans.
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On the GOP side, Republicans repeatedly slammed Strzok for texts to girlfriend and FBI lawyer Lisa Page that they argued showed clear bias against then-candidate Donald Trump.
The hearing dissolved into chaos after Gohmert asked, “How many times did you look so innocently into your wife’s eye and lie to her about Lisa Page?”
The question drew loud boos from the Democratic side of the chamber.
“Congressman, I have to say that I was looking forward to this. I know he already testified behind closed doors,” said Ingraham on her show in kicking off an interview with Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). “But I thought at times it wasn’t working for the Republicans, I got to say.”
“I think Peter Strzok did not come across particularly well, kind of priggish and to me kind of snooty and indignant. I never think that works well for a witness,” the host continued.
“I like Louie Gohmert a lot, [but] I thought that moment, that exchange with Gohmert and Strzok, I don’t think that was good,” she concluded. “And I wouldn’t want to be one of the Republicans on that committee when that went down.”
Gohmert was shouted at when the exchange with Strzok got personal.
“You need your medication,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) hollered at Gohmert.
But DeSantis was critical of Strzok’s answers to the committee.
“It was a wild day, but I would say, [Strzok] reading the text is one thing, but then to have him sit there and say, ‘I said I was going to stop Trump, I didn’t mean the FBI, I just meant the American people would’ … It wasn’t credible, just like his explanations were not credible to the inspector general. He was not a credible witness and I think his explanations did not hold water,” replied DeSantis.
“I think the public got to see the bias,” he added.
Strzok was indignant in defending his text to Page, which stated, “We’ll stop it [Trump from being elected].” He argued that he meant the American voters will stop the real estate mogul from reaching the Oval Office and was not discussing a conspiracy at the FBI.
“You need to understand that that was written late at night, off-the-cuff and it was in response to a series of events that included then-candidate Trump insulting the immigrant family of a fallen war hero, and my presumption based on that horrible disgusting behavior [was] that the American population would not elect someone demonstrating that behavior to be president of the United States,” Strzok said in explaining the text.
Page is testifying to congressional lawmakers in a closed-door session on Friday.