Fox News "Sunday Morning Features" - Transcript Interview with Devin Nunes

Interview

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REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): Great to be with you.

BARTIROMO: We learned that more than a dozen government-issued phones used by Mueller's team during the Russia probe were wiped clean.

Isn't this obstruction of justice? Is that a federal crime, punishable up to 20 years? Your reaction to this?

NUNES: Well, the way I look at this is, thank God for Judicial Watch, who was actually able to fight the Department of Justice to get this information.

This looks like it occurred at a very interesting time. This is when the lovebirds' text messages were discovered. So, clearly, after that, everybody on the Mueller team went and wiped their phone.

So, the question here is, is, was there an investigation? Because, if there was, that could be obstruction of justice. But I think, regardless of that, this is destruction of federal records. We cannot have a justice system, whether it's at the federal level or the state level or local level, where records are being destroyed, Maria, because that's how we have a fair and equal justice system here, that, if there's misconduct of any kind, that you can go back and look at what the prosecutors were doing.

And, look, this is very relevant. If I was in General Flynn's shoes right now, I'd be furious, and I think that as all Americans should be upset about this.

But, for the Republican Party, the Republican Party has to prioritize this, that these guys are prosecuted and held accountable. This was a witch-hunt against our party, against a political party. They politicized and weaponized -- just like Ratcliffe, Director Ratcliffe, said, they weaponized this intelligence.

They knew -- and I will just finish with this part. Remember, all of these witch-hunters on the Mueller team knew the day they walked in the door that there was no evidence of collusion.

So, what they were doing is, they set an obstruction of justice trap. And I have spoke directly to attorneys that dealt with these people. The stories that come out of there -- and they have attorney-client privilege, so they can't talk about who they were representing.

But they have all come to me, Maria. And I don't mean just one. I mean several have come to me and said how out of control they were, the threats that they were making to their clients.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NUNES: And here you have it, they wiped some 30 phones? This is so, so wrong. It's infuriating to me.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

So, is it 30 phones?

How many phones were wiped? And is there going to be any accountability, Congressman? What are you going to do about it? For the last three years, all I have heard is about obstruction of justice and collusion on the other side.

And the president's critics constantly say that that's what he's doing. In fact, that's what they have been doing.

NUNES: Yes.

BARTIROMO: I mean, Hillary Clinton destroyed, what, 30,000 e-mails? No accountability whatsoever.

NUNES: Yes.

BARTIROMO: She even used a hammer to try to -- you know, to try to destroy devices. And then it was like a joke about it.

Ron Johnson has been on this show umpteen times telling us that there were 125 leaks in the first 126 days of the new administration. So, where is the accountability?

NUNES: Well, look, this is why this is so critical.

So, as legislators, we don't have handcuffs and we don't have guns, but this is why the Department of Justice has to rein these bad guys in. There has to be an investigation of this.

Now, look, it is possible there already is one. Remember, there's the Durham investigation, but there's also three other U.S. attorneys from Missouri, from Pennsylvania, and from Texas that are looking into the areas surrounding all of this.

So, hopefully, there's already an investigation on this, I would hope. But, if I'm in General Flynn's shoes, I sure want to know what these prosecutors were doing.

BARTIROMO: Well, when are you expecting John Durham?

Are we going to see a solution or conclusions to his criminal investigation within the next two weeks? News this week that one of his key or lead investigators has stepped down. What's behind her stepping down, in your view?

NUNES: Well, look, we don't know that.

But you have to remember, the fake news complex in this country that's essentially the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, these are -- they were involved in this entire Russian hoax.

And so the only thing that's out there right now on this prosecutor stepping aside is the very people that were involved in this. And they're spinning up their own story, building their own fake news narrative, like they always do.

But here is what we know. The Department of Justice hasn't said anything. The U.S. attorney in Connecticut hasn't said anything. So, all of this is just speculation.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NUNES: And the last thing I'm going to do is listen to the same hoaxers' propaganda arm of the Democrats, the media, these media operatives, spin their story and their tail of lies, when they have been involved in this from the very beginning.

BARTIROMO: In fact, this week, Kamala Harris once again raised the issue of Russia interference.

We have been hearing that a lot. We know that Ratcliffe had to set the record straight and say, look, I give a presentation about election interference, and certain members of Congress, they go and leak it to their favorite news people, and then they miss the whole story, because it's Russia, China and Iran trying to interfere.

But you heard what Kamala Harris said this week, right? What's your reaction?

NUNES: Well, I -- Kamala Harris is from California. She's a senator. She never meets with Republicans.

And, in fact, this is someone who, essentially, Obama had picked her to run. Obama and his team had picked her to run. And then she floundered. She fell flat. She was going to get last place in Iowa and New Hampshire in the early primaries. So, she quickly dropped out, after burning up tens of millions of dollars.

And then the story that is not being told to the American people is that Bernie Sanders was in the poll position and he was going to win. And Obama and his team knew that Sanders, as an outright socialist, that he would lose.

And so what they did is, they propped up Biden, you know, who appears to be nothing more than just an avatar. And they plugged in their apparatchik, Kamala Harris, who has never really had a real race in California, because we're a one-party state out in California, where the Republicans are essentially just sacrificial lambs.

So, she never really had a race when she was district attorney. Then she was put into -- as attorney general of California.

And so, look, she's totally unqualified. And she wouldn't know what the hell the difference between Russian collusion and China collusion would be.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NUNES: All she knows is, she's a politburo apparatchik that's going to build the fake narratives, working with their propaganda arm, which just happens to be 90-plus percent of the media in this country.

And so people just need to know, this is not a serious person that should be considered to be vice president of the United States.

BARTIROMO: Yes. We will be watching. She could be president, sooner, rather than later, should Joe Biden decide to step down because he's got, obviously, his own issues. We will keep watching that.

Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thank you, sir.

Congressman Devin Nunes joining us there.

NUNES: Thank you, Maria.

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