The right wing noise machine in charge of making excuses for Devin Nunes is repeating Nunes's own claim that "left wing groups' are to blame for him stepping down from the Russian investigations in the House. The claim is these groups filed 'frivolous' ethics complaints that 'anybody can file' so there is nothing legitimate about charges against Nunes.

CNN's Senior Congressional reporter Manu Raju put those excuses to bed.

Raju said that Speaker Paul Ryan met with all Republicans on the Intelligence committee earlier in the week and more likely than not, this meeting led to the exodus of Chairman Nunes.

A CNN co-host opened up and highlighted Nunes' excuse, "[Nunes] is blaming what he calls left wing activist groups for ethics violation complaints they brought. This is the first -- John and I have heard of this. What's he talking about?"

Manu Raju explained that "those complaints were levelled in the aftermath of how he briefed the president on the surveillance information - the allegations that he may have mishandled classified information."

However, Raju believes the complaints are being used as "cover."

Raju explained that members of Congress get hit with ethics complaints all the time and a lot of them "are dismissed out of hand because groups can file these from the outside."

Then he brought up Nunes' actions and Ryan's response to them.

"The real reason is what you heard Speaker Ryan say later in his statement: that this had become a distraction," he said.

Raju continued, "This had become a distraction for the committee. This had become a distraction for this investigation and a lot of criticism about whether or not the House could actually produce a credible investigation."

Most honest political pundits and politicians said the same thing after Chairman Nunes turned from an investigator into a Trump surrogate, sneaking around the White House grounds and leaking classified intel to reporters.

"Now notably, Paul Ryan did meet with the Intelligence committee, the full committee earlier this week - with the Republicans on the full committee earlier this week, and he said afterwards he believes this process is gonna be getting back on track," Raju said.

Even though publicly, Ryan has said he had confidence in Nunes -- after meeting with Republicans, it appears Ryan did push him out in an effort to get the investigation and the Committee "back on track." Clearly, that had become impossible with Nunes at the helm.

Raju said the Speaker refused to answer any of his questions about whether he was responsible in urging Nunes to step aside.

Of course he did.