Ratcliffe questions acting DNI about whistleblower complaint

Texas Republican John Ratcliffe sits on the Judiciary Committee, sir, good morning to you and welcome back. Jerry Nadler called Lewandowski, he labeled it unacceptable behavior. What was accomplished from this hearing, sir? Well, Bill, when CNN says the House Democrats had a bad day, that tells you what a disaster it really was. The Democrats were arguing what to even call it, an impeachment probe, an impeachment proceeding, impeachment inquiry, much less have a coherent strategy about how to go about doing it. They are desperate to be the party of impeachment and they're stretching their credibility. They're basically saying if President Trump said it or did it, it must be a crime. And I think that the American people saw that yesterday in that hearing. Well, Lewandowski came to battle. Who's next for this committee? Again, that goes to the fact that there is not a coherent strategy and the Democrats are fighting amongst themselves about what to do. They really don't know. By collusion, by conspiracy, by emoluments clause, by the president using a sharpie on a national weather map, they don't care. They just want to get the president in any way, shape and form. So they'll bring in what helped them to that extent. But it's just it's not working and they're failing miserably in front of the American people. Is the suggestion that Nadler and Speaker Pelosi are at odds on this? Suggestion. Nancy Pelosi has said it. She said, feel free to leak this. There's a schism between the Democrats. In terms of the strategy and whether or not Jerry Nadler's following. Pelosi, she's made it very clear that he is not and that Democrats are not united. They're trying to put out a front that says that they are, but very clearly they're not. Yesterday was a great example of the fact that Democrats, because they're fighting about impeachment amongst themselves, are not focused on providing solutions to the problems that we could be dealing with immigration, health care, everything. Let's see then how they choose to proceed on that. In the meantime, in two hours, Michael Horowitz is on the Hill. He's the inspector general. He returned in a draft report of his internal investigation late Friday afternoon to Bill Barr, the AG. Lindsey Graham on Sean Hannity last night characterized it this way. Every American should be concerned about the fact that the Department of Justice and the did nothing to ensure the document was reliable. It's not reliable to this day. And if the court doesn't clear this up and take corrective action, then why do you expect people in the future to be deterred? So just just to summarize that what Horowitz is looking at is whether or not there was abuse of the FISA courts as it relates to the investigation of the Trump campaign. What questions does he answer on that today, do you think? I don't think he'll answer any on that today, because even though he's written the report, it's in draft form. It hasn't gone through classification review. The question is, was the FISA, which is a very important authority that we have in the fight against international terrorism, is important. But many of us, including Senator Graham and myself, have raised questions about whether the Obama administration abused those authorities not to fight terrorism, but to target Americans for political reasons. That's what the inspector general has looked at. That's what his report will talk about. But today, I think he'll focus maybe on the timing rather than the content. There is a here. Pardon my interruption. I was short on time. There is a hearing today on the FISA court, right? I mean, we should get an update on that in what form. Yeah, I'll be in that hearing today. It's an important tool because it comes up for reauthorization and it's in danger of not being reauthorized because, again, as I've contended, the Obama administration has misused that authority for political reasons instead of its intended purpose for fighting terrorism. So there'll be questions about that in today's hearing. And I'm sure that Inspector General Horowitz will get questions about his report today. I don't think he's going to answer anything with regard to content because it's not out there. He may give us some clarification, Bill, in terms of timing. It's written. It's going through the classification review. I think we'll get it in the next few weeks, but I'm less concerned about when we get it. I'm more concerned about what he says in that report. Folks like Jim Comey and House Democrats and have said that this idea of FISA abuse is nonsense. Trey Gowdy, myself, Lindsey Graham and others have said, we don't think so. Let's hide and watch. We'll see what the inspector general says. He'll say who was right about this and who wasn't. And I think that's important. Sir, thank you for your time. John Ratcliffe is the Republic of Texas. Thank you, sir. We'll see you go down in about two hours. Thank.