WASHINGTON – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is blaming former President Obama for being in cahoots with Russia for eight years and setting the stage for orchestrating a conspiracy theory of collusion between Moscow and Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

"We went through a whole European infrastructure consolidation process of military installations across Europe, abandoned a lot of abilities in the North Atlantic to track Russian subs," Nunes said. "We actually had the president of the United States, who said on a hot mic to the prime minister of Russia at the time, 'Just tell Vladimir to wait after the election.' That was President Obama who said that. So who created this Russian threat? Who? It was the last administration that put us in this position."

Nunes also turned up the pressure on the Democratic Party and the media in his point-by-point refutation of the recently released memo by the House Intelligence Committee minority.

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"We actually wanted this (memo) out," said Nunes, R-Calif. "It's clear evidence that the Democrats are not only covering this up, but they're also colluding with parts of the government to cover this up."

Others at the Conservative Political Action Conference here echoed similar themes.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the probe and the media's focus on it was designed to distract from scandals around defeated 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Stolen and destroyed records. Violations of national security laws. You name it – Judicial Watch has compiled enough evidence to compel the lawful arrest of Hillary Clinton," said Fitton. "It's no wonder that the D.C. establishment would rather talk about their made-up garbage about Donald Trump and Russia."

Nunes was greeted at CPAC with cheers of "thank you!" as soon he took the stage.

"What you're really seeing is the collapse of the media. It's really sad," said Nunes. "Most Americans now understand that no matter where you're getting your news from, it's going to be biased."

The emerging star for Republicans also received a "Defender of Freedom Award," credited to his "lonely pursuit of truth on behalf of the American people."

Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka also tore into the Obama administration at CPAC for using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to bug ex-Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

Gorka, who exited the West Wing last summer, suggested the contentious four-page memo released by Nunes earlier this month just barely scratched the surface of a scandal that will soon be known as "Obama-gate."

"Remember, we're only at the beginning of FISA-gate, which eventually will be Obama-gate," Gorka said. "It's not the Ben Rhodeses of the world, it's not the John Brennans, it's not the Susan Rices, who are only culpable for the criminal regime we had that spied on Americans illegally. Guess what, somebody had to let them. And guess what. It's the last president of the United States."