“I believe that everything here in this matter is totally unprecedented.” “Mr. Chairman, my job is to support and lead the entire intelligence community. That individual works for me. Therefore, it is my job to make sure that I support and defend that person. I think the whistle-blower did the right thing.” “My conversations with the president, because I’m the director of national intelligence, are privileged. And it would be inappropriate for me, because it would destroy my relationship with the president in intelligence matters, to divulge any of my conversations with the president of the United States.” “Gentlemen, I want to congratulate the Democrats on the rollout of their latest information warfare operation against the president, and their extraordinary ability to once again enlist the mainstream media in their campaign. Once again, the Democrats, their media mouthpieces and a cabal of leakers are ginning up a fake story with no regard to the monumental damage they’re causing to our public institutions and to trust in government.” “The complaint reports a ‘repeated abuse’ of an electronic records system designed to store classified sensitive national security information, which the White House used to hide information of a political nature. This is a cover-up. This is a cover-up.” “My call was perfect. The president yesterday of Ukraine said there was no pressure put on him whatsoever, none whatsoever. And he said it loud and clear for the press. What these guys are doing, Democrats are doing to this country is a disgrace and it shouldn’t be allowed. There should be a way of stopping it. Maybe legally through the courts.” “I want to know who’s the person that gave the whistle-blower — who was the person that gave the whistle-blower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right? With spies and treason, O.K.? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”