committee members, republican and democrat, and he s supposed to be independent and charged with this investigation. i want to read you a quote from the new yorker. i want to read you a quote from the new yorker. ryan lizza says it s clear that the white house and nunes coordinated a strategy of focusing on surveillance collection. the white house clearly indicated to me, meaning ryan, that it knew nunes would highlight this issue. it s back door surveillance. it s not just incidental, it s systematic, the white house official said. watch nunes today. sure enough at last monday s hearing nunes asked in his opening statement were the communications of officials or associates of any campaign subject to any kind of improper surveillance. the next day he s on the white house grounds to see intelligence reports. that doesn t say to you there s an issue there? i don t think there s any conflict with being a republican. the american people put republicans in charge of congress. the republic
the top democrat on that very same house committee, adam schiff, saying he has grave concerns over what the chairman revealed. democratic leader nancy pelosi going much further, charging nunes is now in her words deeply compromised in saying he cannot possibly lead an honest investigation. athena jones is out front for us tonight at the white house. this is a pretty stunning twist in an already complex and highly charged political story. reporter: it is highly charged and it is complex, kate. and this announcement by chairman nunes was clearly welcome news to the white house today. they ve been under fire for the past three weeks because of the president s baseless claim that he says predecessor was spying on him. while nunes statements today in no way confirm that claim, they did muddy the waters a bit, raising questions about surveillance collection. and the white house seemed pretty eager to make sure that reporters had a chance to go out and speak with chairman nunes,