The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway exposed this fake news originally pushed by The Daily Beast that Republican Congressman Devin Nunes (Calif.) had falsely denied colluding with the White House to craft the intelligence memo, but MSNBC’s Hardball fit right in with The Daily Beast as they too pushed this falsehood.
NBCNews.com writer Julia Ainsley bemoaned that Nunes “is trying to undermine” Special Counsel Robert Mueller and “unfortunately, what we've heard is that Nunes and possibly other members of Congress have been talking to the White House as they've drafted this memo which further raises questions about its accuracy and its bias.”
Matthews and Page pushed this claim too. Matthews told former Ted Kennedy staffer Mieke Eoyang that “I get the feeling he's getting advice, supervision, direction from the White House” and that he concocted the memo from “something down at the White House.”
“[I]t's something I've never seen before in Washington which is the Justice Department and FBI which are, after all, part of the Trump administration are at odds with the White House...and we've got the White House in a coalition or working with collaborating with the House Intelligence Committee,” Page added.