Nunes Leaving House to Work for Trump

Former president hires a defender to run his new social media enterprise
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 6, 2021 7:00 PM CST
Trump Hires Nunes to Run His Media Startup
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes confers with Rep. Jim Jordan, left, and Rep. John Ratcliffe during a hearing in 2019.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Rep. Devin Nunes had his eye on the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee—assuming Republicans win the House next year. Instead, he's resigning from office to become chief executive officer of the Trump Media and Technology Group, per NBC. "Congressman Devin Nunes is a fighter and a leader," former President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday. "He will make an excellent CEO of TMTG." Nunes, 48, said he'll leave the House at the end of the month.

Calling the job offer an "opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in," Nunes wrote his constituents, per the Hill, "Rest assured, I have not, by any means, given up our collective fight—I’ll just be pursuing it through other means." His statement, as well as Trump's, talked about ending censorship of political discourse. The former president's Facebook and Twitter accounts were canceled after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and Trump and his allies regularly attack social media and tech companies. Trump announced in October that his new company would launch its own platform, called TRUTH Social.

The former president plans to merge a shell company with Trump Media and Technology Group, which said Monday that federal regulators are looking into the plan, per NPR. The social media operation says it has raised $1 billion from investors, per the BBC. Nunes, who is in his 10th House term, could have had a tough time getting reelected. Draft redistricting maps released last month in California were not favorable to his chances; the Cook Political Report calculated that he'd be running in a district that chose President Biden by 9 percentage points in last year's election, per the Fresno Bee. (More Devin Nunes stories.)

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