House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes took several shots at the House Democrats’ impeachment hearings, falsely claiming that the ratings for it were “way down” and slamming the proceedings as a “drug deal.”

At two different moments, Nunes spent his time railing against the House Democrats and pushing a factually incorrect narrative that the American public was not interested in the inquiry. Likewise, Nunes’ choice of “drug deal” to insult the Intel Committee’s was also notable, since this is the exact phrase that former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly used to describe the shadow foreign policy efforts to get Ukrainian investigations opened.

“Well, Ambassador [Kurt Volker] and Mr. [Tim] Morrison, I have some bad news for you,” Nunes snarked at one point, with a slight smile. “TV ratings are way down. Way down. I don’t hold it personally. I don’t think it’s you guys. But whatever drug deal the Democrats are cooking up, here on the dais, American people aren’t buying.”

Later, as the hearings stretched past 6:00pm, Nunes agitated against the established rules of the hearings and mocked the “magical 15-minute motions” that Intel Chair Adam Schiff just granted both counsels for more questioning. When Schiff pointed out that those motions were duly prescribed by the House’s impeachment resolution, Nunes pivoted to trashing the TV ratings again and dismissing the inquiry itself (see video below).

“So, for everyone watching, this is another example of how out of control this process has become, where the Democrats just magically give themselves additional minutes, which they’re right, in the little special rule they wrote they can do,” Nunes said. “But you would at least think they would have the decency to tell us you have 15 minutes more. I would say you can go four hours, we can go five hours, we’ll give you all you want. You can keep digging, if you want. Deeper the hole you dig, the more viewers turn off because people aren’t buying the drug deal you guys are trying to sell.”

Nunes’ claims that ratings are “way down” are, in fact, false. Combined viewership for last week’s hearings on Wednesday and Friday were fairly steady over both days for the six major networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — hovering around 13 million viewers. And another cable news reporter pointed out that cable news audiences have spiked during the impeachment coverage.

Fact check: This is a lie. Cable news numbers were double or triple normal levels. Primetime news shows surging. Friday testimony dropped about 7% vs day one. https://t.co/1VfCFR8yry

— TVMoJoe (@TVMoJoe) November 19, 2019

Watch the videos above, via CNN.

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