CNN host grills House Dem over Democratic Party's FISA memo rhetoric — just see who she blames

CNN host Erin Burnett grilled a House Democrat on Friday over whether or not her party used extreme hyperbole leading up to the release of the controversial "secret FISA memo."

What happened?

In the lead up to the memo's release, Democrats employed hyperbole to express what they believed would be the effects of the public knowing the memo's contents.

Burnett noted that ranking House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said a "constitutional crisis" would be triggered if the memo was released. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said President Donald Trump "abdicated his responsible to protect the American people" when he authorized the memo to be declassified.

Burnett questioned Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, about those comments.

Burnett asked: "'Fake, horrible, constitutional crisis.’ The DOJ saying ‘extraordinarily reckless.' Was there just a little bit of hyperbole coming from Democrats on this? I mean all the names in here are people we knew were going to be in there."

But instead of answering the question directly, and acknowledging the words of her party leaders, Speier blamed Trump for hyperbole being the new normal in politics.

What did Speier say?

She replied:

We have a new normal in this country and unfortunately because the president spews out "fake" for virtually everything, I mean, it's becoming part of our vernacular. This is a phony memo. And the problem is, to really understand it, you have to release the FISA application that's 50 pages long.

She added that if the FISA application were released, it would initiate a "slippery slope" of information.

Speier went on to bash Trump for "attacking" the Department of Justice, FBI and media. According to the House Democrat, those institutions are what make America free. She said "the democracy is gonna start to erode" if Trump continues his attacks.