Republicans 'concerned' by Durham allegations, McCarthy pledges oversight with potential House majority

Joe Concha says Trump presidency was ‘hijacked’ amid latest development in Durham probe

The Fox News contributor joined ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss the Durham investigation and the media’s hypocrisy surrounding the development.

Congressional Republicans are “concerned” by the newly-revealed allegations by special counsel John Durham, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California pledging oversight on what is uncovered should the GOP take back the House.

McCarthy and several of his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate expressed their concerns with the allegations by Durham linking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to the origins of the Russia collusion probe.

Durham’s probe revealed over the weekend that lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to “infiltrate” servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an “inference” and “narrative” to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., Thursday, April 15, 2021, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“Special Counsel John Durham’s continued investigation into the Russia hoax is essential to getting to the truth and protecting our democracy, and because he has already uncovered several troubling findings, it’s clear that Congress must exercise its oversight responsibilities as well,” McCarthy told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Democrats and legacy media may want to sweep this alarming report under the rug, but if House Republicans earn the majority, we will use our oversight tools to determine whether federal funds were used, whether federal office-holders abused their power, and investigate other disturbing elements of this spying scheme to ensure nothing like it ever happens again,” he continued.

Republican Study Committee Chair Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana also expressed his concerns about the revelations, pointing to reports that the Biden campaign paid Neustar Information Services, the same cybersecurity firm at the center of Durham’s probe into the Trump-Russia investigation’s origins during the 2020 elections, for accounting and compliance work.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left, is joined by his picks for the Jan. 6 Select Committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two Republicans, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., center, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, right, for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and if the involvement of the Biden campaign, his national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and others in the secret surveillance of President Trump is as it appears, this is a five-alarm blaze,” Banks told Fox News Digital.

“Nixon spied on a political committee; Democrats spied on the duly-elected President,” he continued. “They aren’t in the same ballpark and Congress needs to act accordingly.”

Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn told reporters on Tuesday that Republicans are “quite concerned about what we have learned from the filings from Durham.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee., speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Texas Unconstitutional Abortion Ban and the Role of the Shadow Docket", in Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, Sept. 29, 2021. (Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS)

“And we are continuing to look at what further information there may be around this,” Blackburn said. “I do think that when you look at and the connect the dots on this, you know, Sussman and what he had then, of course, Marc Elias, Jake Sullivan. So we’ll wait until we get more information.”

Blackburn also said Sullivan “would want to step aside until such a time as this can all be clarified.”

Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that for “years, the media parroted the Democratic narrative about Russia collusion, and now as we’re learning week after week, that is a complete lie.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) speaks during a news conference about inflation on Capitol Hill on May 26, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“The latest with the Durham report is that the Clinton campaign, the same group that fear mongered this Russian collusion actually spied on the President of the United States,” Scott said. “They spied on the President of the United States. They spied, and they lied.”

“We need accountability. We need accountability for the Clinton campaign,” he continued. “We need accountability for Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, because they were complicit in this. So the media needs to start doing their job, talk about exactly what’s called coming out and hold these people accountable.”

Scott also said that Attorney General Merrick Garland “needs to be out there making sure that Durham has all the resources he needs to do a thorough investigation.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer on Sunday Morning Futures.
(Fox News)

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer joined his fellow Republicans in raising their concerns, telling reporters on Tuesday that he is not “stunned by the evidence” mounting that the Clinton campaign “not just spied on her presidential campaign opponent, but the President of the United States,” as well as “tried to embed some technological evidence to prove a narrative that proved to not be true, a lie that’s rarely referenced by the networks.”

“That’s a lie. They like to refer to other things as lies,” Cramer said. “But I’m equally not surprised that the networks haven’t been very interested in the story because, of course, it makes Democrats look bad, makes Hillary Clinton look bad. A look that they’ve earned, by the way.”

Cramer said he believes it’s time to “at least give some equal time to the scandal that is the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton and the Russian collusion lie about Donald Trump and turn to the Russian collusion truth about Hillary Clinton.”

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