Nunes spanks media for calling Trump and his advisers 'Russian agents'

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

In his opening remarks Tuesday at the House Intelligence Committee impeachment investigation hearing, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., accused Democrats and their "puppets" in establishment media of pushing false reports about President Trump and Ukraine just as they did regarding debunked accusations of Trump-Russia collusion.

"There was no objectivity or fairness in the media's Russia stories – just a fevered rush to tarnish and remove a president who refuses to pretend that the media are something different than what they really are – puppets of the Democratic Party," Nunes said in prepared remarks.

"With their biased misreporting on the Russia hoax, the media lost the confidence of millions of Americans. And because they refused to acknowledge how badly they botched the story, they've learned no lessons and simply expect Americans will believe them as they try to stoke yet another partisan frenzy."

Nunes addressed Americans directly.

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"If you watched the impeachment hearings last week, you may have noticed a disconnect between what you actually saw and the mainstream media accounts describing it. What you saw were three diplomats, who dislike the president's Ukraine policy, discussing second-hand and third-hand conversations about their objections. Meanwhile, they admitted they had not talked to the president about these matters, and they were unable to identify any crime or impeachable offense the president committed," he said.

The media, however, portrayed the hearings as chock full of "shocking, damning and explosive testimony."

He singled out CNN, the New York Times, Slate, New York magazine, the Guardian and Buzzfeed for condemnation.

He said they all recently had headlines condemning Trump that were false.

A CNN headline, for example, said: "Congress investigating Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials."

"That was false," Nunes said.

Nunes noted he's raised several still-unanswered questions.

"First, what is the full extent of the Democrats' prior coordination with the whistleblower and who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with?"

He wants to know specifically what coordination was there between the whistleblower and Schiff and his staff, what are the whistleblower's political biases and where he got his information, since it was not firsthand.

Additionally, Nunes wants to know the "full extent of Ukraine's election meddling against the Trump campaign."

"Since the Democrats switched from Russia to Ukraine for their impeachment crusade, [veteran investigative journalist John] Solomon's reporting on Burisma, Hunter Biden, and Ukrainian election meddling has become inconvenient for the Democratic narrative and so the media is furiously smearing and libeling Solomon," he said.

Hunter Biden, with no experience or expertise in the industry, has been paid about $80,000 a month to be on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president and in charge of Ukraine policy for Barack Obama.

"Why did Burisma hire Hunter Biden, what did he do for them, and did his position affect any U.S. government actions under the Obama administration?" Nunes asked.

Explained Nunes: "We have now heard testimony from the Democrats' own witnesses that diplomats were concerned about a conflict of interest involving Hunter Biden. That's because he had secured a well-paid position, despite having no qualifications, on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian company while his father was vice president charged with overseeing Ukrainian issues."

He continued: "After trying out several different accusations against President Trump, the Democrats have recently settled on 'bribery' – according to widespread reports, they replaced their 'quid pro quo' allegation because it wasn't polling well.

"But if the Democrats and the media are suddenly so deeply concerned about bribery, you'd think they would take some interest in Burisma paying Hunter Biden $83,000 a month. And you'd think they would be interested in Joe Biden threatening to withhold U.S. loan guarantees unless the Ukrainians fired a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma. That would be a textbook example of bribery."

He said the media is "free to lurch ... at the direction of their puppet masters. But they cannot reasonably expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for the president they're trying to expel."