Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson said James Comey has politicized "the whole operation." | Getty Democrats: Comey news isn't hurting us in House races

House Democrats slammed FBI Director James Comey during a caucus call Tuesday but insisted his bombshell announcement last week isn’t having a big effect on competitive House races.

“Independence of [the] FBI has been there a long time and what Comey has done is politicize the whole operation,” Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said on the call.


But even as key members panned Comey, party leaders were urging lawmakers to use the latest news as motivation for the waning days of the campaign.

“We don't agonize, we organize,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, according to a source on the call.

New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján, who leads House Democrats’ campaign arm, said the committee hasn’t seen a dramatic shift in House races after Comey’s announcement that the bureau is revisiting its probe into Clinton's private email server, according to two sources on the call.

But that didn’t stop several lawmakers from piling on Comey during the 50-minute call, chastising him for setting off a firestorm Friday and then failing to provide critical follow-up information about newly uncovered emails.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called Comey’s actions “an exercise in poor judgment” that “reflects poorly” on the FBI director and is “patently unfair” to Clinton, according to a source.

And House Oversight ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) reiterated his assertion that the FBI is operating under a “double standard” by making the Clinton announcement while still withholding information about Russia’s efforts to sway the election.

“Comey has refused to say one syllable,” Cummings said, referring specifically to any connections Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort might have to Russia’s email tampering.

Separately, lawmakers on the call were “enthusiastic” when told Donald Trump had tweeted his support for embattled GOP incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa earlier Tuesday.

Democrats have been pouring money into Issa’s race, hoping to knock off the longtime incumbent who’s up against a political newcomer, former Marine Col. Doug Applegate, in a district that’s drifting Democratic.

