WATCH: CNN's Erin Burnett hammers Trey Gowdy over House GOP's 'extraordinarily reckless' Nunes memo

CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday hammered House Intelligence Committee member Trey Gowdy (R-SC) as he tried to defend the release of a memo drafted by committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) that the Department of Justice itself said would be “extraordinarily reckless.”

Gowdy insisted he’s “not a conspiracist” and that he has “tremendous respect for the Department of Justice and FBI” before saying he has “concerns about what they did in 2016.” Discussing a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd warning against the release of the memo, Gowdy chimed, “let’s lower the rhetoric.”

Burnett cornered Gowdy about Boyd’s memo, explaining the Department of Justice “think not only would it be reckless, but see no wrongdoing in the FISA process.”

“Stephen Boyd is Donald Trump's nominee!” Burnett explained. “He is saying to you all he does not see any evidence of what is being alleged.”

“I like Stephen,” Gowdy replied. “I work well with him. It's really difficult to say a memo is reckless when you haven't read it.”

“How is that consistent with you are saying?” Burnett pressed. “How can anyone talk about this and the implications of if it they haven't seen the underlying information? From what I understand, nobody is advocating to release the information for what is a partisan memo that’s coming out of it. Because it's so classified. Are you saying the top secret information you read should be released?”

Gowdy replied that he didn’t want to compromise sources and methods, prompting Burnett to press him about House Republicans’ new favorite rallying cry.

Watch the full interview below, via CNN:

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