title:  WATCH: Joy Reid And Panel RIP House Intel Chair And Trump Stooge Devin Nunes Apart Piece By Piece
text: An examination of Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Saturday was totally devastating and damning.This week, after FBI Director James Comey refuted Donald Trump s claim that he was wiretapped by President Obama, Nunes held a hasty press conference in a desperate effort to portray Trump as a victim whose wiretapping accusation was right all along.Nunes is in charge of the committee that is supposed to be investigating Trump s Russia scandal, but he tied the wiretapping claim into it in order to distract from the main investigation.But reporters have been digging into Nunes this week and have found some bombshells that should bring Trump and the GOP down, and Joy Reid and her panel discussed the top four.First, Nunes told Mother Jones reporter David Corn that he has never heard of Carter Page or Roger Stone, both of whom are Trump stooges with ties to Russia. Again, Nunes is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee charged with investigating Trump s ties to Russia. He should damn well know who Stone and Page are.Even Corn was  stunned  by Nunes answer and had only three possible explanations. Either he s a dimwit who hasn t read a single story about the matter he s supposed to be vetting or he has some brain disease and can t remember or he was lying to me,  Corn said.  Those are the only options I can think of. It was a bizarre moment and you re right, we could spend the next hour talking about all the weird things and bizarre things he did this week from cancelling hearings to coming forward with incomplete information to rushing to Trump. Corn then warned that Nunes demonstrated that the House Intelligence Committee is broken and is incapable of overseeing what the Executive Branch is doing. It is a breakdown, and I say this to be serious. It s the breakdown of the Congressional intelligence oversight process and the only reason we let the Executive Branch do secret work in terms of espionage, counterintelligence, counter-terrorism is because they ve overseen by the Legislative Branch. And Devin Nunes just showed this week that there is a complete breakdown in that process. Reid then turned to national security expert Malcolm Nance and asked him about why Nunes abruptly left his car after taking a phone call and disappeared for a bit. Nance opined that Nunes got called to the White House and was told to present the  incidental surveillance  as proof to vindicate Trump. Because soon after his disappearing act, Nunes called his press conference. Nance went on to call Nunes  clueless about what surveillance is. But that s not all. Reid asked Sarah Kendzior, who is an expert on authoritarian states, about Nunes taking information about the investigation to Trump.Kendzior explained that Nunes is  supposed to be watchdog but he s acting like a lapdog  and that instead of investigating, he s  acting like an informant.  She cited Nunes  behavior as just another example of Trump s corrupt regime.Scott Dworkin chimed in when Reid asked about Nunes owning part of a winery that has a direct connection to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin through a Russian investor. Dworkin pointed out that it should not be so easy to be connected to Putin and stated that Nunes should not be a congressman and he definitely shouldn t be the chairman of the intelligence committee since his wallet is so close to Putin.Here s the video via VidMe:Reid and the panel also wondered how Nunes ended up becoming the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee considering he has no intelligence experience and doesn t know much about it.But the bottom line is that Nunes just destroyed his credibility and the credibility of the committee he chairs. This investigation needs to be turned over to a special prosecutor and an independent commission because it s clear that Nunes is more interested in helping Trump cover up his Russia scandal than he is in investigating it and finding the truth.Featured image via screenshot