Did Devin Nunes Misrepresent His Own Comments About Eating Out?

The California Republican claimed he was recommending drive-thru or takeout when he said 'it’s a great time to go out' on Sunday.

By
25

In an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday night, Rep. Devin Nunes attempted to claim that earlier comments of his about the coronavirus, in which he encouraged people to go out to eat, had been distorted.

“What I was saying is you have empty restaurants, you can go through the drive-thru or do take-out. It’s a great place to go,” said Rep. Nunes.

This does not align with what he said while on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, with Maria Bartiromo:

“If you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going. Don’t run to the grocery store and buy $4,000 of food, go to your local pub.”

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
25
By
Comments (25)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Doug Ventura

    Honors Graduate from the Trump School of Habitual Fabrication

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Stephen Maturin

    I see his comments as an illustration of the tension between wanting to keep the economy at least limping along by not putting every small business out of business, while also addressing concerns about our friend the C-virus. It was perhaps an ill-conceived comment, but his heart was in the right place - trying to reduce the shock on local business.
    Taking the cynical side of the issue, one can imagine that he's expecting to be re-elected someday and will need contributions to finance his campaign. Maybe he was thinking the business owners in his district would thank him someday for trying to support them.

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Logical

    Marginal issue highlighted here with Nunes. He got away with murder by not recusing himself on intel committee hearings when he himself was digging dirt up from Ukraine.

    Remember the secret WH presser?

    Any con giving Nunes a pass needs to get off the "con" high horse.

    Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Visibly

    It would be very useful that Nunes describes his change of opinion in detail.
    And perhaps say that experts are often much better than an opinion of a person without knowledge.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Pat Riot

    Again, 60% of Democrats and only 30% of Republicans polled took the virus seriously last week. It will of course change now but the failure of social distancing between those who believed Trump during that time will cost thousands and thousands of lives. These are the wages of Republican lies.

    For three years now Trump's lies have coincided with a blasting stock market, low unemployment and no major wars. People could laugh at his lies. Now, just like virtually every Republican national security expert predicted before his election, Trump has created disaster.

    It's not funny anymore.

    Collapse
    1. Nathan Shiba

      Anonymity allows one to say things with no consequence, no sense of community, not humility or sense of charity.

      Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Octávio Lima

    These GOP congressmen turned out to be an enormous disappointment, particularly those Freedom Caucus Congressmen. No principles, only "owning the libs".

    Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Leo Monterosso

    Devin Nunes should have the courage to admit he was wrong and until he does he'll not become a great leader.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Octávio Lima

      In this day and age admitting one is wrong is a sign of weakness, not of character. This inversion of values is one of the things that is leading to the decay of norms.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Aylene Wright

        I suspect that if Trump hadn't become President, that Northam would not be the Governor of Virginia right now, either because (1) His GOP opponent wouldn't have run the Trumpy campaign he did and actually won or (2) He would have apologized and resigned after a certain yearbook photo came out. (Of course, then Ds get stuck with Fairfax who has his own baggage, but still.)

        Collapse
      2. Avatar photo
        Leo Monterosso

        Agreed....the world as it is aside, the Age of Trump accelerates moral declension, doesnt it? So many of those who initially stood against him now use their reputations as human shields to protect him.

        Collapse
  8. Kindaconservative

    It's incredible how much a statement can mean that was not apparent at 1st brush. Pres. Obama says "these acts of terror" in his rose garden speech surprisingly turns out to mean Benghazi was immediately acknowledged as a terrorists attach of the American Embassy. This gets Mitt Romney corrected by Candy Crowley during a presidential debate when Romney stated correctly that Pres. Obama had not acknowledged the Benghazi attack as anything more than a spontaneous reaction to an offensive video for over a week. It turns out that a statement is clearly understood depending on what you can get away with. As long as Devin Nunes sticks to his guns on this he will also be able to warp reality convincing many that restaurant drive through and pick up was always his meaning.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Dick Robinson

    such a petty post. how long did it take you to find a way to critique? have you found anyone else's mis-speaks to fact-check? isn't there enough going on in the world that is important? I like The Dispatch generally, but this is like digging through a verbal trashcan.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Montagu

      Petty? A national public official was encouraging risky behavior during a major public health crisis, and then he got caught in his lie, which speaks to the guy's credibility.

      Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      Jenny

      I'll be generous and consider that maybe his heart was in the right place with this advice. He's right; this is going to hurt restauant workers, and he's not wrong to encourage that we help them. Still, that was some pretty irresonsible advice he handed out. Lying about it just makes it look a lot worse.

      Here is why I think this is important. Why should we have faith in what he says about public safety next time?

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Leo Monterosso

        Methinks TDS speaks more accurately of people like Rep Nunes. Very strange choice of words during this time.

        Collapse
    3. Avatar photo
      J.R.

      One of the purposes of a fact check is to hold people in positions of power accountable for what they say; especially when what they say has immediate public health implications. There are 700,000 people in his district, listening to what he's saying.

      Collapse
    4. Avatar photo
      David V

      You don't think it's important to call out people for saying stuff that's actually harmful to the public health? I don't think this is petty at all. Nunes has a pretty high profile and he's helping to push this narrative that the virus isn't an actual problem. That's an issue in my mind.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Dick Robinson

        where did he say the virus isn't an actual problem? give me that quote and I'll go with your post.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Dick Robinson

          In any case I didn't subscribe to the Dispatch to get into verbal sparring.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            Visibly

            And here we love verbal sparring, but with kindness!

            Collapse
          2. Avatar photo
            Visibly

            Welcome to the group!

            Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    Earl King

    I wish Govt. officials would have quarantined the elderly and the vulnerable. Perhaps 50 to 70 million rather than 330 million and crushing the economy. After all we have whole sector of home delivery for food and medicine. Some will never recover. I don't really believe this all ends in two weeks...

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Octávio Lima

      It would be hard to avoid contagion if those elderly and vulnerable still had to interact with the rest of the public, which seems inevitable. And it will not end in two weeks, you are correct.

      Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      Rob W

      It definitely won’t end in 2 weeks. With effective social distancing, it likely won’t peak for a couple months and will continue at some level through the summer, depending on whether warmer weather and humidity has a positive impact.

      Collapse