Republican strategist Steve Schmidt blasted Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) for pushing conspiracy theories against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” with anchor Nicolle Wallace.

“What we’re seeing now, and I don’t know what Devin Nunes’ motivation is, I do believe he has a record of acting in bad faith,” Schmidt suggest.

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“Uh-huh,” Wallace noted.

“But clearly, the actions of the Republican majority are lined perfectly with the interests of the intelligence services of the Russian Federation with regard to this matter,” Schmidt observed.

His next comments seemed aimed at Fox News.

“And now we routinely see on a cable news station calls for senior law enforcement officials to be locked up, political opponents to be locked up, and the bottom line is this, you can bring political pressure and crush the independence of the American justice system, the Department of Justice, concepts of the rule of law,” Schmidt suggested.

“If you were to look in Turkey at Erdogan and his blueprint for establishing a Turkish autocracy, it begins with the attacks on the fake news and the press, and then the relieving of senior military officers, and then the relieving and questioning of judges and prosecutors,” Schmidt explained.

“The weakening of institutions, that’s what’s going on. These are the Banana Republicans,” Schmidt concluded.

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