Democratic Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.) said Monday that he believes a "declining percentage of the American population" cares about seeking "truth, fact, and reality."
Himes made the comment to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace while discussing the Republican-written memo from the House Intelligence Committee, which was released on Friday and alleges Justice Department abuses in its surveillance of former Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), chairman of the committee, spearheaded the effort to release the memo.
The memo revealed that the Justice Department used the controversial Christopher Steele dossier, which contains salacious and unverified information about Trump and his relationship with Russia, to help get a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to surveil Page. Steele, a former British intelligence officer, compiled the dossier in 2016 on behalf of Fusion GPS, a research firm that had been commissioned by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Democrats have castigated the memo, saying it is misleading and undermines the integrity of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. They have also created their own memo to counter the GOP version, but it will remain classified until the House Intelligence Committee votes to release it, giving the White House five days to approve its declassification.
Wallace asked Himes, a member of the committee, what the Democratic memo's release would achieve "in term of helping clear the FBI from this Nunes-Trump smear campaign."
"I think it's an extensive memo, and I think what it will do for people who care about truth, fact, and reality, which sadly seems to be a declining percentage of the American population," Himes said.
"They will look at it and they will say, OK, it may be true that the Steele memorandum or elements of the steal memorandum were used as part of a much larger FISA application," Himes continued. "They will learn that it is not true that either the judge was hoodwinked here. They will also learn that just because a source, as you said, just because a source has a bias, that does not, therefore, mean that what the source said is untrue."
Nunes has said that his memo reveals "serious violations of the public trust" and that "the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes."
"It is my hope that the committee's actions will shine a light on this alarming series of events so we can make reforms that allow the American people to have full faith and confidence in their governing institutions," Nunes added.
Disclosure: The Washington Free Beacon was once a client of Fusion GPS. That relationship ended in January 2017. For more information, see here.