On Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) said Republicans should leave the so-called whistleblower alone.

While discussing the House Intelligence Committee’s upcoming public hearing, Mitchell asked, “What do you do if they decide to name the whistleblower in open, live testimony?”

Quigley said, “That would be the most disgusting thing I would have seen in my, what, 40 years in politics. And I come from Chicago politics. Look, to put someone’s life at risk for political gain? I don’t get these folks. If they were investigating an arson, would they arrest the person who pulled the fire alarm? That’s all the whistleblower did. They pulled the fire alarm. We have found the smoke, we have found the fire. Leave this person alone.”

He added, “They’re also putting extraordinary chilling impact on the whistleblower system. While that is important in a democracy, in the intelligence world in a democracy, the whistleblower system is absolutely critical. If we don’t have it working, two things happen; leaks, which weaken us, attack our sources and methods, and also bad things go unnoticed and unpunished. That can’t happen in our open system.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN