McCarthy Shares Nunes’ Frustration on Sessions: ‘You’ve Got to Put Everything on the Table’

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) said Wednesday morning on The Laura Ingraham Show that the Department of Justices' withholding of key documents "has become a pattern," which has stymied Congress' oversight duties. 

When asked about the recent contempt threat against Attorney General Jeff Sessions by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, he responded: 

MCCARTHY:  Well I think you’ve got to put everything on the table, because  the idea that these agencies have waited so long for all this information  and you’ve got 1.2 million different pages that are supposed to go over to  Trey [Gowdy] or Goodlatte and they’re only a couple thousand into it, I  think its a bigger question. If we’re going to be separate but co-equal,  you’ve got to work in a nature where you deliver it in a timely manner. I  think what Devin is doing is raising the issue that people can see has been  going on for way too long. 

McCarthy also stressed that Nunes needs to see the documents he has requested from the Department of Justice related to the Russia probe, batting away the notion that Nunes and his committee cannot access classified information. 

“Devin runs a special committee, that deals with classified matters and others,” McCarthy said. “The idea for people to say that they can’t send them classified information doesn’t hold.” 

McCarthy also revealed that in many cases, information was classified or redacted to shield agencies from disclosing individuals’ personal animus toward President Trump and attempts to discredit him. 

“Every time we’ve gotten information, low and behold when they’ve said they had to hold something for us because it was classified and redacted, it had nothing to do with that, but it was an embarrassment to what these people are trying to do because they have their own personal beliefs, a few of them, and are trying to discredit this president.” 

McCarthy is considered the top contender for the post-Ryan speakership should the Republicans hold the House in November.