Florida Republican offers lamest possible defense of Devin Nunes: ‘Look at what Bill Clinton did’

A Republican lawmaker appeared Thursday morning on CNN to offer a feeble defense of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) for sharing confidential details of an investigation with the president.

Nunes angered Democratic members of the committee by publicly revealing the Trump transition team had been snared in the U.S. surveillance of foreign agents, and then briefing the White House, before sharing those details with their colleagues.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the panel, harshly criticized Nunes -- whom he said had jeopardized the integrity of their investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia -- but Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) said he trusted his GOP colleague's intentions.

"I do know Devin, and Devin is a man of character and of high integrity," Yoho told CNN's "New Day." "I haven't had a chance to talk to him, (but) I have trust and faith in Devin, so whatever he did, he did it for the right reason."

Yoho then tried to change the subject, to the dismay of CNN's Alisyn Camerota.

"If we're going to go down that road, look at what Bill Clinton did with Loretta Lynch, getting on a plane (during) an active investigation," Yoho said.

Camerota asked Yoho how far he was willing to go back to cloud the situation, and the GOP lawmaker admitted he was willing to say almost anything.

"We can keep going back and forth," he said, and Camerota's face fell.

"That's right," Camerota said.

Republican @RepTedYoho on Nunes briefing Trump: Whatever Nunes did I'm sure he did it for the right reasons https://t.co/qkcggeGh31

— New Day (@NewDay) March 23, 2017