The White House has apparently unleashed the dogs of war on retiring Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) after the chairman of the House Oversight Committee undercut President Donald Trump's "spygate" conspiracy theory, Politico reported Saturday.
"Trump allies have been pummeling Gowdy in recent days, branding him a gullible or clueless backer of the intelligence community," Politico noted. "At times, Trump himself has seemed perplexed; in the span of two years, the president once hailed Gowdy as a brilliant lawmaker before bashing him as a failure and then embracing him once again.
Now, after years shouldering the House GOP’s weightiest and most politically explosive investigations, he’s again drawn the ire of Trump-world."
“I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got — and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy told Fox News.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Gowdy's conclusion about the so-called "spygate" theory.
“Now that Trey Gowdy, who has actually seen all the classified intelligence on what the FBI was doing, says there was nothing to the allegations that they were spying on the Trump campaign — and in fact, Gowdy says that the FBI was doing exactly what they should have been doing — given what Trey Gowdy has said, is the president prepared to retract his allegation that the FBI was spying on his campaign?” ABC News White House correspondent Jon Karl asked Sanders.
The White House said there's "still cause for concern" and that "the President is concerned about the matter, and we're going to continue to follow the issue."
“Gowdy was in the briefing, he knows what was done and he’s saying that these allegations are baseless, there was no spying on the Trump campaign," Karl followed-up.
“Like I just said the deputy director of the FBI was fired for misconduct,” Sanders repeated. “There were a number of things that have been reported on that show I think not just for the president, but a number of Americans, a large cause for concern.”
Her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, on Friday lashed out at Gowdy in a lengthy column posted to his website.
"Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) jumped on his words as a 'debunking' of the alleged spying. Not to say that spying wasn’t done, because we know it was, but Gowdy seemed to be saying that such activity is routine and should be accepted without question, even under these circumstances," Mike Huckabee wrote. "He said the FBI was doing what his 'fellow citizens' would have wanted them to do. (Mr. Gowdy, you can count this fellow citizen out.)"
The press secretary's father isn't the only Trump ally attacking Gowdy.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Rep. Gowdy had been "drinking the Kool-Aid" given to him by law enforcement.
"Gowdy apparently doesn’t get it. He’s actually defending the FBI’s use of spies in its overall investigation into Russian collusion,” Sean Hannity said Wednesday. "This phony narrative. And frankly, I’ve always liked Trey Gowdy. Shame on Trey Gowdy.”
Rush Limbaugh also attacked Gowdy on his radio show.
“He did nothing but feed the leftist propaganda machine yesterday,” NRA spokesperson Dan Bongino concluded on Fox News.
Watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders defend the "spygate" conspiracy theory: