The Morning Joe team skewered the GOP on Tuesday for making "a deal with the devil" after the House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to release a secret memo that reportedly accuses senior FBI officials of misusing their authority to obtain a surveillance order on President Trump's former campaign associate, Carter Page. "I understand Donald [Trump's position]," a disbelieving Joe Scarborough said. "He will take any sleazy tactic he can to save himself and his family from going to jail. But Paul Ryan? A guy from Janesville, Wisconsin. A guy I campaigned for in 1998 … What does he get out of this?"
Panelist Jim VandeHei didn't have much sympathy for House Republicans. "They made a deal with the devil and they feel good about it," he said. VandeHei further skewered House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) for ignoring warnings from the Department of Justice that releasing the memo would be "extraordinarily reckless."
"What Nunes did is unprecedented," VandeHei went on. "Never in the history of this committee has this committee voted to declassify classified material. Never."
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Co-host Mika Brzezinski concluded: "Joe, Republicans seem to be on the yellow brick road."
"The yellow brick road to hell," Scarborough agreed, adding: "Bad things are going to happen to [Trump] legally. The Wizard of Oz didn't get indicted. The Wizard of Oz didn't go to jail." Watch below. Jeva Lange
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