A White House deputy press secretary shared a recent conversation with his Uber driver during a CNN interview Monday as an example of why the Russia investigation has gone on too long.
Hogan Gidley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper he was talking with his Uber driver “just yesterday” about politics and the Trump presidency when the driver brought up the investigation into Russian election meddling in 2016 and any possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Gidley said the driver was unaware he worked for the White House.
“(The Uber driver) said, ‘A whole year and nothing in the investigation? It’s time for this to end,'” Gidley recalled. “And I think he shares the opinion of most Americans when if there is no collusion and there is no obstruction, it’s time to quit spending time and, quite frankly, the American people’s money on a witch hunt.”
“I’m not sure if the Uber driver is a scientific survey,” Cooper responded.
“I wasn’t saying that,” Gidley said. “I was saying it was an anecdote, Anderson.”
Gidley’s Uber tale came just hours after President Donald Trump attacked Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff as “one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington” in a tweet. Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House committee investigating Russian election meddling.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!” Trump said in the tweet.
When asked about Trump’s accusations of the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Gidley backed the President’s position, saying Washington “is full of leaks and nonsense.”
“If you’re talking about specific meetings with Adam Schiff and then Republican congressmen, and then information comes out that’s damaging to Republicans, it’s not Republicans leaking it,” Gidley said. “It’s someone like Adam Schiff or his staff.”
Earlier Monday, Schiff denied that he or his staff were behind leaks of sensitive information.
Gidley also admitted he did not know if Trump had read the controversial Nunes memo before the President was overheard saying he would “100%” release the document in an off-mic remark following his State of the Union address last week. The memo was released last Friday, and now House Democrats are pushing to release their own countering memo soon, and Gidley hinted that Trump would be on board with releasing that one also.
“I don’t know if he read it at that point or not,” Gidley said. “But I can say that the President will make the same accommodations for the Democrats as he did for the Republicans. He wants sunlight here, he wants this stuff to be out in the open, and he’ll treat it as such.”