Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) slammed Donald Trump on Wednesday for spreading his “Spygate” conspiracy theory despite knowing that it was false.
Speaking to Politico, Rooney asked: “What is the point of saying that there was a spy in the campaign when there was none?”
“It’s like, ‘Lets create this thing to tweet about knowing that it’s not true,'” he continued. “Maybe it’s just to create more chaos but it doesn’t really help the case.”
Trump has been spreading his conspiracy theory for weeks, attacking the FBI on Twitter:
Wow, Strzok-Page, the incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers, have texts referring to a counter-intelligence operation into the Trump Campaign dating way back to December, 2015. SPYGATE is in full force! Is the Mainstream Media interested yet? Big stuff!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2018
The Democrats are now alluding to the the concept that having an Informant placed in an opposing party’s campaign is different than having a Spy, as illegal as that may be. But what about an “Informant” who is paid a fortune and who “sets up” way earlier than the Russian Hoax?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2018
Rooney, who is retiring at the end of his current term, sided with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who told CBS News that there was no evidence to back Trump’s claims that the FBI spied on his campaign.
“If you want to disagree with what we were briefed on and say that it was a spy? That’s fine, I guess,” he told Politico.
“We would just disagree with that,” he said. “And if that makes us RINOs (Republicans in name only) because we have a different opinion about what the FBI was doing, then I guess we’re RINOs.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan also sided with Gowdy on Wednesday, claiming that the FBI never spied on the Trump campaign.
