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Tom Rooney, a republican congressman from Florida blasted Donald Trump Wednesday over the president's claims that the FBI planted a spy in his campaign.
"What is the point of saying that there was a spy in the campaign when there was none?" Rooney told Politico. "You know what I'm saying? It's like 'Let's create this thing to tweet about knowing that it's not true.'"
"Maybe it's just to create more chaos but it doesn't really help the case," Rooney added.
The "spygate" conspiracy began after it was reported that Stefan Halper, an FBI informant, met with multiple Trump campaign advisers in 2016 to assess any connections between the president's campaign and Russia. Trump claimed, without evidence, that Halper was a spy sent by the Obama administration for "political purposes."
"If the person place very early into my campaign wasn't a SPY put there by the previous Administration for political purposes, how come such a seemingly massive amount of money was paid for services rendered- many times higher than normal…" he tweeted earlier this month.
Trump has since said the conspiracy "could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!"
SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
Rooney isn't the only Republican to push back on Trump's claims. House speaker Paul Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill he's seen "no evidence" to support the conspiracy and he endorsed Representative Trey Gowdy's assessment that defended the FBI's practices.
"I think the FBI, if they were at the table this morning, they would tell you that Russia was the target and Russia's intentions toward our country were the target," Gowdy told CBS This Morning.
"Based on what I have seen, I don't know what the FBI could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about Russia," he said. 'I would think you would want the FBI to find out whether there was any validity to what those people were saying."
Rooney indirectly addressed Trump through Politico. "Look, if you want to disagree with what we were briefed on and say that it was a spy? That's fine, I guess," he said. "We would just disagree with that."
