Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said in his opening statement at the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearing on Tuesday that the fake news perpetuated against President Donald Trump since his inauguration in 2016 continues with the effort to remove him from office.

“If you watched the impeachment hearings last week, you may have noticed a disconnect between what you actually saw and the mainstream media accounts describing it,” Nunes said. “What you saw were three diplomats, who dislike the President’s Ukraine policy, discussing second-hand and third-hand conversations about their objections.”

“Meanwhile, they admitted they had not talked to the president about these matters, and they were unable to identify any crime or impeachable offense the president committed,” Nunes said.

“But what you read in the press were accounts of shocking, damning, and explosive testimony that fully supports the Democrats’ accusations,” Nunes said. “If these accounts have a familiar ring, it’s because this is the same preposterous reporting the media offered for three years on the Russia hoax.”

Nunes said although the fake news narrative has morphed from Russia to Ukraine, the Russian hoax made headlines for years.

“On a near-daily basis, the top news outlets in America reported breathlessly on the newest bombshell revelations showing that President Trump and everyone surrounding him are Russian agents,” Nunes said. “It really wasn’t long ago that we were reading these headlines:

From CNN: “Congress investigating Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.” That was false.

From the New York Times: “Trump Campaign aides had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence.” That was false.

From Slate:“Was a Trump server communicating with Russia?” That was false.

From New York Magazine: “Will Trump be meeting with his counterpart or his handler?” That was false.

From the Guardian: “Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, sources say.” That was false.

And from BuzzFeed: “President Trump directed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Tower project.” That was false.

Nunes said that the media are “puppets” for Democrats to use to try to remove a duly elected president.

“There was no objectivity or fairness in the media’s Russia stories — just a fevered rush to tarnish and remove a president who refuses to pretend that the media are something different than what they really are — puppets of the Democratic Party,” Nunes said.

Nunes repeated his charge of media “puppets” but said the American people have been educated about fake news since Trump was elected.

“The media, of course, are free to act as Democrat puppets, and they’re free to lurch from the Russia hoax to the Ukraine hoax at the direction of their puppet masters,” Nunes said. “But they cannot reasonably expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for the president they’re trying to expel.”

“Americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it, and if the mainstream press won’t give it to them straight, they’ll go elsewhere to find it — which is exactly what the American people are doing,” Nunes said.

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