House intel Republican slams own committee: We 'lost all credibility'

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced they’d concluded their investigation into Russia’s election interference and potential coordination with the Trump campaign. And just hours later, Republican Rep. Tom Rooney, a member of the committee, admitted that they had “lost all credibility.”

CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Rooney why Republicans had shut down their investigation before interviewing key persons. That potential interview list includes four Trump associates currently under indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“The Senate hasn’t ended theirs, Bob Mueller hasn’t ended [his] — why are you all ending it?” Burnett asked.

Rooney was straightforward in his damning assessment of his own committee. “We have gone off the rails and now we’re a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news,” he admitted.

“We have lost all credibility,” he added.

This comes just after Republicans on the committee dismissed the U.S. intelligence community’s high confidence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Republicans referred to the conclusion that Russia had interfered to help Trump as a “narrative” with which they disagreed.

The Republican report also stated that the committee found no evidence to refer a single person for potential criminal prosecution. Yet Mueller’s investigation has brought about the indictment of 19 people and three companies, including four members of the Trump campaign.

The credibility of the House Intelligence Community has been called into question from the very beginning. Chairman Devin Nunes invited such criticism by using his position as the head of the committee to shield Trump from scrutiny.

Despite recusing himself, Nunes continued to participate in the committee’s activities. In doing so, turned the investigation into a sideshow — and turned himself into a joke.

The abrupt conclusion of the Republican-led investigation is the final act of a congressional panel that has spent the past year putting on appearances.

The committee lost its credibility long ago — and even Republicans who were in on the act are coming clean.