the gentleman from california, mr. nunes, is recognized to close. mr. nunes: thank you, mr. chairman. i rise -- i recognize myself for as much time as i may consume. mr. chairman, this year's i.a. is named after damon nelson and matthew pollard, who staffers who passed away unexpectedly last year. matthew poll hrd is remembered by -- pollard is remembered by staffers. damon nelson was a personal friend. damon would be happy with the bill today and i'm happy that this committee was able to produce a bipartisan product. in closing, i want to take a moment to thank the men and women who serve in our intelligence community. i'm honored to get to know so many of them in the course of the committee's oversight work. i would also like to thank my colleagues on the intelligence committee for their contributions to our oversight over the past year. i would also like to thank all the staff of the committee for their hard work on the bill and their daily oversight of the intelligence community. in particular, i'd like to thank the professional oversight staff rom the minority, especial

mr. niewn expes myself. mr. nunes, you are recognized. >> mr. mueller, it's been a long day for you. and you've had a long great career. i want to thank you for your longtime service, starting in vietnam, obviously in the u.s. attorney's office, the department of justice, and the f.b.i. and i want to thank you for doing something you didn't have to do. you calm here upon your own free will, and we appreciate your time today. i will yield back. >> thank you, sur. >> director mueller, i want to close out my questions and turn to some of the exchange you had with mr. welch a bit earlier. i'd like to see if we can broaden the apure tur at the end of the hearing. from your testimony today, i gather you believe knowingly accepting foreign assistance during a presidential campaign is an unethical thing to do. >> and a crime and a crime, under given circumstances. >> and to the agree that it undermines our democracy and our institutions, we can agree that it's also unpatriotic. >> true. >> and wrong. >> true. >> the standard of behavior for a presidenti

mr. nunes and myself. mr. nunes, you're recognized. >> mr. mueller, it's been a long day for you. you've had a long great career. i want to thank you for your long time service starting in vietnam. obviously in the u.s. attorney's office, department of justice and the fbi. i want to thank you for doing something you didn't have to do. you came here upon your own free will. we appreciate your time today. with that, i yield back. >> thank you, sir. >> mr. mueller, i want to close out my questions, turn to some of text change that you had with mr. welch earlier. i'd like to see if we can broaden the aperture at the end of the hearing. from your testimony today, i gather that you believe that knowingly accepting foreign assistance during a presidential campaign is an unethical thing to do? >> and a crime. >> and a crime. >> yes. and given circumstances. >> and to the degree that it undermines our democracy and our institutions, we can agree that it's also unpatriotic? >> true. >> and wrong. >> true. >> the standard of behavior for a presidential candidate or any candidate for that mat

nunes: thank you, madam speaker. and thank you to mr. kelly for giving me time to speak in support of h.r. 748, the middle class health benefits tax repeal act. this bill will make -- will provide much-needed relief from one of the most burdensome and blunt taxes in obamacare. by repealing this tax, we'll save employers from paying a 40% tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health care coverage. the bill will provide much-needed leaf not only for employers but for the employees, some of who are low-income earners with high-cost health benefits. who are forced to bear the repercussions of this tax. that said, i am disappointed that the majority chose not to repeal the medical device tax or the health insurance tax, both of which are harming hardworking americans across the country. medical device tax is a 2.3% excise tax on the value of medical devices sold domestically. making life-saving products more expensive is not only good policy -- is not good policy, and should be included in this repeal bill. the health insurance tax or h.i.t. is

and with that, i would ask mr. nunes for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate your willingness to work in a bipartisan manner on this important issue. i want to thank all of you for your attendance here today. there's going to be a lot of perspectives and i'm very grateful for the members of congress that are here today. miss porter and miss mcmorse rogers. unfortunately, butler cannot be here because she's nine months pregnant. so hopefully everything is going well and hopefully she doesn't receive any surprise billing. but i want to be clear. critical sectors from our economy could not come to find a way to work together to protect patients from these huge surprise bills. instead we are here exploring a government solution to the problem. we've all heard the ridiculous stories. $600 band-aids, $60 ibuprofen, $5,751 ice pack. the patient with the $5,000 ice pack reportedly went to the emergency room after hitting her head and cutting her ear but ended up leaving without care because the plastic surgeon who would see her was an out of network for h

mr. nunes and myself. mr. nunes, you're recognized. >> mr. mueller, it's been a long day for you and you've had a long great career. i want to thank you for your long time service starting in vietnam obviously in the us attorney's office, department of justice and the fbi. and i want to thank you for doing something you didn't have to do. you came here upon your own free will and we appreciate your time today. with that i yield back. >> thank you, sir. >> director mueller, i want to close out my questions, turn to some of the exchange you had with mr. welsh a bit earlier. i want to see if we can broaden the aperture at the end of your hearing. from your testimony today i'd gather that knowingly accepting assistance from a foreign government is a -- >> and a crime. >> to the degree that it undermines our democracy and our institutions we can also agree that it's unpatriotic and wrong. >> true. >> the behavior of a candidate shouldn't be merely whether something is criminal. it should be held to a higher standard, you would agree? >> i'm not go

. >> thank you, mr. nunes. >> thank you. welco welcome, director. as a former fbi director, you would agree that the fbi is the world's most capable law enforcement agency? >> i would say we're -- yes. >> the fbi claims the counter intelligence investigation of the trump campaign began july 31st, 2016. but, in fact, it began before that. in june 2016 before the investigation officially opened, trump campaign associates carter page and steven miller, a current trump adviser, were invited to attend a symposium at cambridge university in july 2016. your office, however, did not investigate who was responsible for inviting them to this symposium. they also failed to interview an american citizen who organized the event and invited carter page to it. is that correct? >> can you repeat the question? >> whether or not you interviewed steven schraege who orged the cambridge -- >> those areas i'm going to stay away from. >> the first trump associate to be investigated was general flynn. many allegations against him stem from false media reports that he had a

mr. nunes connect >> thank you. welcome, director. as a former fbi director, he would agree that the fbi is the world's most capable law enforcement agency? >> i would say, yes. >> the fbi claims the counterintelligence investigation of the trump campaign began on july 31st, 2016. in fact, it began before that. in june 2016, before the investigation officially opened, trump campaign associates carter page and stephen miller, a current trump advisor, were invited to attend a symposium at cambridge university in july, 2016. your office, however, did not investigate who was responsible for inviting these trump associates to this symposium. your investigators also failed to interview stephen trickey, an american citizen who helped organize the event and invited carter page to it. is that correct? >> can you repeat the question? >> whether or not you interviewed stephen schrage. >> those areas, i'm going to stay away from. >> the first trump associates be miss katie was general flynn. many of the allegations against him stem from false med

mr. nunes and myself. mr. numnes, you are recognized. >> mr. mueller, it's been a long day for you, and you've had a long, great career. i want to thank you for your long-time service starting in vietnam. obviously, in the u.s. attorney's office department of justice and the fbi. and i want to thank you for doing something you didn't have to do. you came here upon your own free will, and we appreciate your time today. with that i yield back. >> thank you, sir. >> dr. mueller, i want to close out my questions, turn to some of the exchange you had with mr. welsh a bit earlier. i'd like to see if we can broaden the appertoire at the end of the hearing. from your testimony today, i gather that you believe that knowingly accepting foreign assistance during a presidential campaign is an unethical thing to do. >> and a crime. >> and a crime. >> and a given circumstances. >> and to the degree that it undermines our democracy and our institutions, we can agree that it's also unpatriotic. >> true. >> and wrong. >> true. >> the standard of behavior for a

and devin nunes made snide comments. mr. mueller is a decorated war hero who gave his life of dedication to public service. he was just repeating what he had written honestly in that report. the fact of the matter is republicans and democrats is that the russians influenced in our election. and the reason why donald trump doesn't want to admit that, it makes it look like he was elected in not the right way of voting. but it was enhanced by russian interference. we cannot let that happen again. that is the bottom line and i think that mueller explained that. at the end of the day this is exactly what that report proves. pan republicans and democrats need to look at in issue head on. >> how concerned are you about 2020 mary anne in terms of. >> very. >> potential interference by the russians or by other -- other nefarious actors if you will. >> this is how concerned i am. if the republicans don't get onboard neal say, you know what, that report showed that russia interfered in our election. nobody will ever trust the results o

ranking member nunes? >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, everyone, to the last gas of the russia collusion conspiracy theory. as democrats continue to foist the spectacle on the american people, as well as you, mr. mueller, the american people may recall the media first began spreading this conspiracy theory in the spring of 2016. when the fusion gps, funded by the dnc and the elder clinton campaign, started developing the steele dossier. a collection of outlandish accusations that trump and his associates were russian agents. effusion gps, steel, and other confederates -- and to top officials in numerous agencies, quitting the fbi, the apartment of justice, and the state department. among other things, the fbi used dusty allegations to obtain

if you've not looked at the intelligence committee recently, mr. speaker, you'll see devon nunes leading it on the republican side of the aisle, and adam schiff leading it on the democratic side of the aisle. i can picture those two faces because i usually see them on split screens on fox or msnbc and i can't think of many things they've had to say where they agreed with one another over the past four, five years. and yet we have a bill today in sharp contrast to the partisan nonsense that was the ndaa operation last week. we have a bill that has come out of the intelligence committee with two strident, passionate republican and democrat leaders there on the intelligence committee, that came out unanimously, that they presented unanimously in front of the rules committee last night, and we have a chance to pass here on the floor of the house. you also find in this rule, mr. speaker, 31 amendments that have been made in order to that intelligence re-authorization bill, even though we found bipartisanship in the committee, even though we found unanim

>> i don't think anyone who is an accolite of the president which devin nunes is, what needs to exist with the leadership and intelligence community. >> it's always a pleasure. >> thanks. >> how is our friend mr. hayden doing? >> great. >> i haven't spoken to him in a couple weeks but i owe him a phone call. >> he and i had breakfast a week or so ago and he was terrific. >> yeah. i hope he's watching. if not, say hello. i'll talk to him soon, though. thank you very much. >>> joe biden unveiling a new criminal justice plan ahead of the debates. will it deflect attention from the 1994 crime bill he helped write that contributed to mass incarceration? ok i'll admit. i didn't keep my place as clean as i would like 'cuz i'm way too busy. who's got the time to chase around down dirt, dust and hair? so now, i use heavy duty swiffer sweeper and dusters. for hard-to-reach places, duster makes it easy to clean. it captures dust in one swipe. ha! gotcha! and sweeper heavy duty cloths lock away twice as much dirt and dust. it gets stuff deep in the grooves other tools can miss. y'know what? my pl

>> i don't think anyone who is an accolite of the president which devin nunes is, what needs to exist with the leadership and intelligence community. >> it's always a pleasure. >> thanks. >> how is our friend mr. hayden doing? >> great. >> i haven't spoken to him in a couple weeks but i owe him a phone call. >> he and i had breakfast a week or so ago and he was terrific. >> yeah. i hope he's watching. if not, say hello. i'll talk to him soon, though. thank you very much. >>> joe biden unveiling a new criminal justice plan ahead of the debates. will it attract attention from the 1994 crime bill he helped write that contributed to mass incarceration? i used to book my hotel room on those travel sites but there was always a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's jus

i recorded and watched the entire program and my first response is mr. mueller cannot hear well and my second response would be i believe people are going to believe what they want to hear. there were things that the man it wasot discuss and obvious he was trying to be mindful of the words he used because of ongoing cases and when you have that many people throwing that many questions that you, i would challenge anyone that spoke against him confused org he was that he did not want to answer, they were things he could not that peoplell say don't go to jail for no reason and i am a firm believer, you are known. . for the company you keep -- you are known for the company you keep. host: demings asked mueller a series of questions about line during the investigation. [video clip] >> a couple of my colleagues want to ask you about lies but let's talk about lies. ,ccording to your report witnesses lied to your office and to congress. those lies materially impaired the investigation of russia and interference -- russian interference. other than the individuals

ranking member nunes? >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, evyone, to the last gasp of the russia collusion conspiracy theory as democrats continue to collusion theory. the democrats push this spectacle on the american people, as well as you, mr. mueller. the american people may understandou brought this conspiracy in the spring of 2016, when fusion gps funded by the dnc and the clidevehe stle ng tlodossier. out landish accusations that trump and his associates were russian agts. others spread these to partisan reporters and top officials in numerous government agencies, including the fbi, the department of justice, and the state department. among other things, the fbi used dossier allegations to obtain a warrant to spy on the trump campaign. despiteing despite acknowledging dossier allegations as being salacious and unrified, former director james comey briefed those allegations to president obama and president-elect trump. those briefings conveniently leaked to the press, resulting in thee publication of th dossier and launching th

. >> sean: mr. president, last question on this, and i want to switch to 2020 if i may. comey, mccabe, comey signed the first fisa warrant, which opened the door, apparently, according to nunes and the grassley-graham memo, the bulk of information was hillary's bought andnd paid for dirty russian dossier, and we found out from john solomon, they had a spreadsheet, even the fbi said this was false, garbage, not true. comey signed it. that allowed a backdoor to sign on your company and, later transition, and then presidency. mccabe, strzok, paige, brennan,e, clapper, be sourcing out what would be a legal intelligence gathering. and we know the attorney general's there. is there any ofe. these names -- what do you think these people? because james comey signed the first fisa application in october 2016, went to trump tower in january 2017 and told you it's unverified, months earlier, he swore on that application, the fisa application, that it's verified, so he lied. what are your thoughts about these people today? >> president trump: well, comey is a liar and a leaker. and

mr. yoho: thank you, madam speaker. i stand in support of an amendment i have offered to the damon paul nelson and matthew young pollard national intelligence act. i would like to thank representatives nunes and schiff for their work on this legislation. my proposed amendment includes within the report on 5g technology the flet threatt to the national security of the united states posed by telecommunications companies that are subject to the jurisdiction of foreign adversary. namely, china, russia, iran, north korea, and syria. this will cover threats from acquisitions, importation, transfers, or use of communications technology by any person subject to the jurisdiction of the united states that involved technology designed, developed, or controlled by a foreign adversary. as globalization continues to shape the world we live in, it is increasingly important that the united states prioritizes the security of our cyber networks and infrastructure. today, china controls over 60% of the 5g networks in the world. in 201, th