Rep. Doug Collins said Friday he's not interested in becoming President Donald Trump's permanent director of national intelligence, but he also said the nation's intelligence community needs to work to keep the United States safe rather than dig up dirt on a president it doesn't like and indicated the process should continue to clean out the community.
"It's time we continue this process of cleaning this out, and that's what we're still doing every day," said the Georgia Republican on Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria."
Dating back to 2016, Republicans are still looking at the "corruption of" former FBI Director James Comey; former FBI agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page; former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe; former CIA Director John Brennan; and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said Collins.
"We can't let another president go through what we've seen because it's just wrong," said Collins. "Our intelligence communities need to be arbiters of what's going on in the world and keep us safe, not getting political dirt on a president that they don't like. This has got to stop."
Meanwhile, Collins and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., have sent a letter to committee chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., urging him not to miss the opportunity to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a March 15 deadline approaches.
Collins noted the many problems with the use of the FISA court to obtain warrants on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
"I want to know why chairman Nadler is scared to have a hearing with [Michael] Horowitz," he said of the watchdog who reported about the warrants. "Why is he scared to talk about the findings?"