Gowdy: I wish Dems would help more on Russia probe

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Sunday accused Democrats of failing to help congressional Republicans investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Gowdy, the chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats on the panel appear more interested in probing President Trump and his associates’ ties to Moscow than uncovering how Russia sought to disrupt the 2016 race.

“They tried to attack the fundamentals of our democracy and that’s what I’ve spent 2017 focusing on,” he said. “That to me is an American issue. I wish the Democrats would help a little bit more instead of reading the Moscow phone book during the witnesses interviews trying to see if Jared Kushner knows a guy named Igor. I wish they’d help.

{mosads}

“That’s been my focus in 2017, is understanding that Russia tried to subvert our democracy, and it’d be great if my Democratic friends helped a little bit.”

Democrats, however, have accused Republicans of dragging their feet in the congressional investigations into Russian election meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Gowdy’s comments came after the Oversight Committee and the House Intelligence Committee launched investigations into an Obama-era deal that put Russia in control of more than 20 percent of the U.S. uranium stockpile, as well as the Justice Department’s handling of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.

Democrats have argued that those probes are meant to distract from the long-running congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.