Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Friday House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler’s push for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “complete and unredacted” Russia report is “just more political grandstanding.”
Gidley made the comments on “America’s Newsroom” when he was asked if the White House has a problem giving Nadler the full, unredacted report.
Nadler, D-N.Y., issued a subpoena Friday to obtain the "complete and unredacted" version of Mueller's report, as well as the underlying materials.
“I’m shocked,” Gidley said sarcastically.
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He added, “Jerry Nadler is irrelevant in the situation. The American people now know that regardless of what the Democrats were saying about the president, lies they were telling with zero evidence and zero proof, now he wants to go deeper. When does this ever stop? I mean, if we gave him the unredacted report, if we gave him all the tax returns unredacted as well, he would still want something else.”
Gidley was then asked again if he would have a problem releasing the full report.
“We are not going to deal with Jerry Nadler in that matter. We have already cooperated so much with the House Democrats and we’ll continue to do so,” Gidley said in response. “But the fact is, this is just more political grandstanding by someone who has nothing to run on, nothing to talk about, other than trying to attack a man who has now been proven completely innocent of any crime.”
After two years of suspense, Mueller’s report was released into Washington’s partisan scrum Thursday showing investigators did not find evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia – as Attorney General Bill Barr declared last month – but also revealing an array of controversial actions by the president that were examined as part of the investigation’s obstruction inquiry.
Mueller ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether the president's conduct amounted to obstruction, stating: "[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
On Friday, Gidley also reacted to Rep. Adam Schiff’s, D-Calif., recent claim that "significant evidence of collusion" existed.
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“Yesterday he was on another network and they asked him about moving to impeach the president and he sided with Nancy Pelosi. She said it wouldn't be worthwhile, quote unquote, to do that, but he said the reason we won’t is because we need overwhelming and demonstrable evidence against this president. Wait a minute. You've been on network television telling everyone you had this evidence,” said Gidley.
“Just like the special counsel, it's time to put up or shut up. If you have the evidence, show it. The problem is, he doesn't, he knows it. He's been lying to the American people. He's been lying to all of us, accusing this president of treason for two and a half years.”
When asked if he welcomes Joe Biden into the 2020 race, Gidley answered, “Absolutely.”
He added, “The president is going to beat anyone and everyone who comes into this race.”
Joe Biden is expected to declare his candidacy for president next week, two sources with knowledge of the former vice president’s plans confirmed to Fox News on Friday.