Citation From the October 30, 2019, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR, MORNINGS WITH MARIA):Joining me right now is the author of the new book on the bestseller list, The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History. The author Lee Smith is joining us right now. Lee, it's great to have you, congratulations on the book.

LEE SMITH (AUTHOR): Thank you, thanks very much, Maria.

BARTIROMO: So, let me start with the impeachment process, because I think our audience knows how I feel about what went on in 2016, as I've talked about it a lot in these last three 3 years. Do you connect any dots with the fact that they are trying hard to come up with something against President Trump right now, and completely ignoring what we already know was some wrongdoing by some key players in our intel agencies back in the election year of 2016?

SMITH: Absolutely. Here's how I see what we're calling the impeachment process, inquiry — I see it as a secret ritual conducted by a cult. I mean, they're doing most of this in secret. And I think it's worthwhile thinking of Speaker Pelosi as the high priestess of the cult, and Adam Schiff as a high priest of the cult. And the purpose of the cult is to protect the swamp — the swamp and what the swamp has done — and President Trump was sent by the American voter to drain the swam. And yet it's the role of Madame Pelosi and Mr. Schiff to protect the swamp. What they're talking about, impeachment, is ridiculous. It bears no connection to reality, just as Russiagate bears no connection to reality.

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I think the real lasting damage that's been done here is that Hillary Clinton paid for a conspiracy theory that has been injected into the American public sphere. We've been living with this for more than three years. We've been living in the sick mind of the Clinton campaign, and Clinton operatives, and that's what the impeachment process is about. It's a continuation of the sickness that the Clintons put into the American public sphere, starting in late 2015, early 2016.