Trey Gowdy, a top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, seemed to hint that there is evidence Donald Trump has obstructed justice in the Russia investigation during an interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday. But host Bret Baier failed to explore further.
Despite Gowdy’s partisan theatrics, he has also become something of a wild card. His comments about his decision to give up his influential seat in Congress, where he chairs the powerful Oversight Committee and sits on the House Intelligence Committee, have indicated that he has had some kind of crisis of conscience in the Age of Trump.
During his Fox News Sunday interview yesterday, Gowdy was hardly supportive of Trump. For example, the interview opened with this exchange:
BAIER: You know, after the president’s meeting with Vladimir Putin and that much analyzed press conference in Helsinki, your colleague, Republican colleague from Texas, Congressman Will Hurd, a former CIA officer wrote an op-ed for The New York Times and it was entitled, “Trump is Being Manipulated by Putin. What should we do?”
And in it, the Texas Republican writes, quote: Over the course of my career as an undercover officer in the CIA, I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.
So, do you agree with Congressman Hurd? Is the president being manipulated by Vladimir Putin?
GOWDY: Well, Will has a background as a CIA officer. I defer to him on manipulation.
I can tell you this, Bret, the president has access to every bit of evidence, even more than those of us on House Intel. And Will and I serve on Intel. He has access to Pompeo and Chris Wray and Dan Coats and Nikki Haley.
The evidence is overwhelming. It can be proven beyond any evidentiary burden that Russia is not our friend and they tried to attack us in 2016. So, the president either needs to rely on the people that he has chosen to advise him, or those advisors need to reevaluate whether or not they can serve in this administration.
But the disconnect cannot continue. The evidence is overwhelming and the president needs to say that and act like it.
Later on, Gowdy offered up Republican/Trump-friendly criticism of the FISA warrant to surveil Carter Page. But that was followed by this:
GOWDY: I’ve seen as much if not more than any other member of Congress, which is why I am so adamant that Russia is not our friend and they tried to attack us.
BAIER: Are you equally adamant that the president is not—has not colluded with Russia?
GOWDY: I have not seen one scintilla of evidence that this president colluded, conspired, confederated with Russia. And neither has anyone else, or you may rest assured Adam Schiff would have leaked it. So, that’s why they’ve moved off of collusion onto obstruction of justice, which is now their current preoccupation.
In the first place, while there may not be evidence of Trump colluding with Russia, there is plenty of evidence that the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump Jr., did. But perhaps more importantly, while Gowdy sneered at Democratic “preoccupation” with obstruction of justice, he did not say there was no evidence of that. In fact, he may have inadvertently revealed that there is when he said, “that’s why” Democrats have “moved off” collusion and “onto” that.
At the very least, such a statement deserved – no, required – a follow up question. But Baier moved on to talk about the texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page that the Cover-Up Caucus and its media arm at Fox News have exploited to undermine the Russia investigation.
Watch Gowdy below, from the July 22, 2018 Fox News Sunday, and decide for yourself if he inadvertently revealed something potentially explosive.
(Transcript excerpts via FoxNews.com)